


Delusion

by AkatsukiShin



Series: Half A Year [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Action, Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Yakuza, Angst, Drama, Drama & Romance, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:58:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 50,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3175466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkatsukiShin/pseuds/AkatsukiShin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First story of the [Half A Year] series. Having been injured during a raid to arrest a group of yakuza responsible for major drug dealings, Aomine finally returned to the force, carrying a scar on his left shoulder. He was supposed to set his eyes on a single goal: "To atone for the failure his emotions wrought to the entire team and to ensure the success of their second attempt to shut down the yakuza". However, the ruthless truth he had been forced to face that day led him to choose a reckless path once again: "To pursue the man who betrayed him and carved the permanent scar on his left shoulder no matter what".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

If one were to measure all the choices in the world, perhaps one of the heaviest man should ever make was whether to face the truth or to keep living in delusion. It was only a simple matter of choosing one between two roads, but the consequence lying in wait at the end of each way could be fulfillment or regret. Of course, most of the times it would be easier to delude oneself since the truth was often far too painful to bear. Some people even said if we kept believing in lies as truth, eventually they would become the truth, as well.

“…-chan…”

At this moment, this was exactly the question I had been asking to myself. Should I keep pretending that this delusion was true or should I delve further until I saw the truth with my own eyes? It was cowardly to keep deluding myself, I know, but truthfully it was the first time I felt so afraid of my belief to be betrayed. Never in my entire life time had I experienced something like this and I just couldn’t make the choice, even after having all these six months to think for myself. I felt like my ability to judge was clouded. This was the first time my mind was so muddled that I couldn’t determine which one was right and which one was wrong.

“Dai-chan!”

A bubbly voice burst right in front of my face as though slapping me wide awake. Before me was a woman with pink hair, standing with both hands on her waist as she glared at me with her round, pink-colored eyes. Such an impatient, yet confused expression was no longer unfamiliar to my eyes. I had seen this face millions of times since we were both tiny brats.

“Why are you just standing there? I thought I’ve told you countless times that they’ve been waiting for us,” she complained with puckered lips, but it was before long that her frowning face changed into one painted with concern, “Are you feeling alright? It doesn’t hurt anymore, does it?”

Her eyes shifted to my left shoulder. I didn’t have to be a psychic to know what was going on in that pretty lil’ head of her and I could even hear her next words in my mind already.

“There shouldn’t be anything to worry about. The doctor said it’s fully healed, so you can return to the force and resume your regular activities just fine,” she said with a reassuring smile, confirming all my guesses completely, “It’s too bad that it would leave a permanent scar, though.”

There was nothing I could say to that, so I decided to ignore her and continue walking. With her bubbly voice yelling at me to wait, I took my first step in the past six months into the towering headquarters standing before us.

Yeah… I finally returned. Truthfully I had been wanting to ask myself of why I came back to this place. If I didn’t return, I wouldn’t have to face the risk of having what I believed betrayed should the truth appeared to be the opposite of what I had hoped. If I didn’t come back here, I could believe whatever it was I wanted to believe and made myself content with it. But still… I returned to this place. I didn’t want to admit it, but could it be that somewhere in my heart, I did want to find _him_ again and this time, hear the truth straight from his own mouth?

“Dai-chan, let’s go?” a nudge on my arm made me turned aside and found that woman already by my side, looking at me as though she could read my mind just like I could read hers. “Come on. The others are waiting.”

We walked through the front door, passed the main lobby and took the elevator up. Soon, we found ourselves in the bustling hallway. It had been awhile since I last stood here, but to be honest it didn’t change at all. The sound of footsteps resounded throughout the entire place as dozens pairs of feet were walking from one corner to the other, entering and exiting the rooms lining along the way one after another. Sometimes there would be several fellows with their hands bound in handcuffed, walking with their heads down between two officers. Sometimes there would be a group of officers dashing through the hallway as they rushed to have their orders done. Unless the city was free from all sorts of crimes – which was very unlikely even when the world ended — perhaps this place would never cease to be lively for 24 hours, 7 days a week.

“Isn’t that Aomine? Haven’t seen him these past few months…”

Despite the lively atmosphere, my ears didn’t fail to catch someone’s voice mentioning my name. It was at that moment I noticed dozens pairs of eyes had their sight on me. They did it silently and if possible, secretly, but only a complete airhead wouldn’t notice if that many people all of a sudden turned their gazes on you. Some of them, however, apparently thought they could also talk about me secretly, as well. These two guys standing near the vending machine were proofs of it.

“You didn’t know? He got shot on the shoulder during the last raid with his team, shattered his bones in that part and needed to put on the sling for awhile.”

“I guess even Aomine got injured, huh…”

If they had time to talk about other people, they’d better start working their asses off…was what I wanted to say, but I had grown far too old for that, unless I was still my high school self from ten years ago. It would be better to just ignore them, so I continued walking without sparring them even a single glance.

Sadly, though… Those guys weren’t the only ones with too much free time around here.

“Aomine-san is finally back? It’s been half a year since that failed raid, isn’t it?” said a female officer standing outside the restroom with a small group of her colleagues, or should I say “fellow gossipers”? It seemed that they were so immersed in their talks that they didn’t even notice the object of their conversation was walking right past them.

“It’s hard to imagine there are criminals out there who can outsmart Aomine-san and his team. They’re the best we ever have here. Or have we put too much expectation on them?”

“Outsmart? Wasn’t it because their plans were revealed?”

I took a side glance at the pink-haired woman walking next to me. She appeared to understand what I meant to say as a bitter smile drawn itself on her lips. Exhaling a long sigh, she slightly brushed the hair covering her left ear while shifting her glance to the group of gossipers.

“We’ve been keeping it confidential,” she replied in a small voice as not to let the people walking around us to hear what she was about to say, “But such a well-planned raid like that was too good of a rumor to be left alone, especially if it ended in a failure even after having the so-called ‘best team’ to work on it.”

“Satsuki… So you’re saying they just pop out some random rumor and it just happen to be spot on?” I said without looking at her, but from the atmosphere she was emitting I knew it was true, even though she was reluctant to admit it.

“Well… There aren’t a lot of explanations people could think of why such a great team could fail to accomplish a plan even after thorough preparations,” she let out a sigh. As though trying to lighten up the atmosphere, however, she quickly posed a smile and spoke with her usual bubbly voice. “But you know, Dai-chan, rumors usually die down quickly if you just ignore them, so maybe you shouldn’t put too much thought into it.”

I had nothing to say to such typical answer, but she stared at me as though finding my silence confusing before a grey-colored double door came within our sight. Satsuki took a few steps forward ahead of me, knocking the door before opening it slightly, enough for her head to peek through.

“Excuse me. I brought him,” she announced to those waiting inside with her bubbly voice. Considering her casual attitude, it couldn’t be any other but _them_ behind that door. Just the thought of it was enough to make me yawn out of boredom right on the spot, and as expected that woman quickly turned back at me with both hands on her hips. “Come on, Dai-chan, be quick! Everyone’s already in the meeting room.”

Meeting room, she said… It wasn’t like that place was anything like the main auditorium for the entire divisions to gather during important meetings. If I had to put it into words, it would be a mere “discussion room”. I hadn’t even taken a step forward, but in the back of my mind I could clearly saw that so-called meeting room I was approaching. Minimum decorations, rectangular wooden table in the middle of it with several chairs… The shelves were filled with general not-so-important documents and there was a whiteboard, as well. Not even ten people could fit inside. That guy must be sitting on a smaller desk next to the whiteboard and that other guy standing beside him, and the other two would be sitting across each other on the wooden table.

“Ah, the ace detective has finally returned. Welcome back, Aomine.”

A greeting said in a _Kansai_ dialect; a nostalgic, yet unpleasant voice despite the friendly tone. In the first place, it was only nostalgic because I had been away for half a year. Those squinted eyes were almost smiling behind his pair of glasses along with his lips. It was just as I thought. He was sitting there on a small desk next to the whiteboard, looking straight at me who was standing by the entrance. I didn’t answer; there was no need for me to. It wasn’t like I hate him. I just didn’t want to get too friendly with that guy although he was actually very capable in his job.

I had a quick scan across the room and it was exactly as I imagined. Each and every single one of them were right in the places I expected them would be. Next to the evil glasses was that considerably silent guy, sitting on the chairs around the table was that loud guy and… Ah, there was Ryou. I’d ask him to make lunch for me again tomorrow.

“How’s the examination going, Momoi?” the evil glasses, Imayoshi, shifted his sight to Satsuki. He probably knew he wouldn’t get me to talk, so he asked her instead. I guess these people all considered her as my spokeswoman, if not mind reader.

“It was alright. The doctor said Dai-chan’s wound has already healed, but he still has to be careful not to put too much burden on it,” she said while slightly putting a meaningful glance at me, “As long as he doesn’t overexert himself, he would be alright.”

An advice I’d heard far too often but rarely adhered. In the back of my mind, I knew the limit of which I shouldn’t have crossed but for some reason I ended up not listening even to my own self. I guess this time I finally reaped what I sow, huh?

“Well, that’s good news. At least now we have our ace back in the team, don’t you think so, Susa?” Imayoshi shifted his glance to the silent guy with dark brown hair beside him who simply looked back at him before giving a nod.

“You’re right,” he answered in a short sentence, enough to get his point across but not quite enough to show whether he actually cared or not. I swore to god, these formalities were straight out boring the hell out of me. If they didn’t really care, they shouldn’t waste their time with these stupid talks and go straight to the point instead.

With this thought in mind, I pulled a chair next to Ryou and settled down. The timid guy freaked out a bit when the _thump_ echoed across the room. Well, who cares…

“Enough about the welcoming _chit-chat_ ,” I said bluntly, crossing my legs as I fixed my position on the chair, “I thought you’re gonna brief me on the stuffs I’ve been missing out during my absence.”

I didn’t even have to waste my energy to look at the noisy guy sitting right across me to flare up and stood up while slamming the table with both hands. Man, I could even see veins popping out on his temple.

“You!! And here we are worrying about your injuries, but it seems that you’re as ungrateful as ever, huh?!” he abruptly leaned forward as though trying to crush my face with his glares alone.

“Now, now, calm down Wakamatsu,” Imayoshi spoke with an ever so composed demeanor as usual before shifting his gaze at me, “We _did_ leave him out in the dark these past few months. So now, why don’t we all sit down and listen to the summary of the latest reports? Sakurai, if you will.”

“Y-Yes, right away, Sir!” awkwardly and nervously as always, Ryou who had been fidgeting in his seat next to me stood up abruptly before scrambling to put the papers on his hands in order. Despite his nervousness, however, the notes on it were surprisingly neat.

“Sakurai-kun, you don’t have to be so nervous. We’re the only ones listening,” Satsuki giggled as she pulled a chair and sat across him.

“R-Right! Well then… I’ll begin…” Ryou replied, loud and clear, as though he was just given an order straight from his boss. Holding the papers tight on his hands, he began to read the first paragraph. “This report begins after the end of January, immediately after our last raid failed to capture the group of _yakuza_ responsible in drugs trafficking with the Triads in Hong Kong. Aside of their existing business with international markets, approximately a month after the raid we discovered that they have begun to expand their illegal business to local dealers who then distributed the items to smaller groups and individual consumers.”

I could feel the entire room fell into complete silence when the report was being read. Ryou slightly glanced at me as he flipped the paper to the next page. I had no idea why, but it seemed that he was checking if I was actually listening or not. When he saw that I was staring at him as the other guys did, he looked back to the papers and resumed talking.

“In the past six months during Aomine-san’s absence, we managed to arrest four local dealers associated with these yakuza. However, each and every single one of them stated that they have never made direct contact with the members of the yakuza. We—“

“So you’re saying that these guys you caught didn’t even know who they got the drugs from?” I cut him before he finished reading the report. The timid guy was obviously startled, but he quickly attempted to regain his composure and answered.

“I… I suppose, yes—“

“Maybe you didn’t quite hear me. I’m not asking for you assumptions, Ryou,” once again, I cut his line, “I was asking you this: _Do these guys you have caught know from who they got the drugs from_?”

“Ah, s-s-sorry! I didn’t mean to—“ he began to freak out, but I didn’t shift my sight away from him. I didn’t know if he realized the heavy emphasize I had put in my words, but instead of running into his usual apologizing mode, he gulped once and continued talking although I could see his hands were shaking. “Y-Yes, according to the result of our interrogation, the dealers only knew the drugs came from a yakuza group, but they didn’t know exactly which group.”

“Then why did you guys put their names in this report? How did you know if they were related to that particular case? They could’ve been from any other drugs trafficking cases. We have tons of those in this town,” I pressed further.

“About that, allow me to elaborate,” Imayoshi raised a hand, signaling that he would be taking over. As Ryou settled back down on his chair, the evil glasses stood from the desk he had been sitting on and approached the table. “Indeed, if we are to sum up the report, we could say that the local dealers all got their hands on these drugs through a middleman before distributing them. There is no decisive evidence that they are related to this case we’re working on, although we do have a couple of clues.”

He looked over his shoulder and the silent guy, Susa, took a small box which had been sitting on the desk and handed it over to Imayoshi. The evil glasses then picked up a tiny, transparent plastic bag from the box. Inside were several small red pills.

"These are the goods distributed by the local dealers we arrested,” he explained, “It’s true that there are a lot of crimes involving various gangs and yakuza groups in this town, but there could only be one group responsible for this type of drug.”

I didn’t need to have him explaining things for me. I knew those red pills; I knew them far too well. I had been working for two years to solve the mystery of its distribution chain and it was also the sole reason of this hole on my left shoulder. If there was anyone in this town who distributed these accursed stuffs to local dealers, it could only be them.

“But still… This is only circumstantial evidence. You can’t just link anyone to some case just because circumstances seem to be pointing at them,” I replied. The moment I said these words, I could feel every pair of eyes in the room was turning at me. I myself couldn’t help but wonder why I said these words, even though I knew very well that he was saying the truth. They probably had the same thought as me, huh?

“…Well, yes, that is true. Circumstantial evidences are not enough to link someone or some groups to a case, let alone arresting them for it,” Imayoshi fixed the position of his glasses, “But I wonder if you would still say that after you see the second clue.”

He picked up another item from the box, throwing it on the table in such a way that it would slide off to my direction. It was a rather blurry photograph, probably snapped by one of the street cameras. I didn’t expect to see anything outstanding from such a picture, but the moment I caught the image printed on it, my eyes flew opened.

There were two men standing across each other, half hidden by a wall which seemed to be one side of an alley between two buildings. From the small text on the bottom right corner of the picture, the photograph was snapped around midnight a couple of months ago. Naturally, it was a bit dark but at least the face of the man facing the camera was pretty clear. It was the first dealer the team had arrested. He was seen receiving a package from the other man whose face could not be identified as he was standing with his back to the camera. Only his bright golden hair distinguished his appearance from the rather dim surroundings.

I was still fixated on the picture when Imayoshi slid off three more photographs towards me. Each was printed with the picture with the second, third and fourth dealer respectively in practically the same condition as the first one. Half hidden in a dark alley, they were all seen receiving a package from a golden-haired man who was standing with his back facing the camera.

“But of course, these are still insufficient to be called decisive evidence,” Imayoshi broke the silence as I felt he purposely fixed his stare at me, “After all, there must be quite a lot of man with this hair color and this hair style and posture and height in this town. We do not have any proof that it was _him_ , so even with this picture we would not be able to link that group to this case.”

A sudden wave of irritation immediately rose inside me. I lifted my face, almost ready to snap at his seemingly on-purpose provocation, but this time I saw no smile on his face. He was only looking at me silently, together with the rest of the people gathering in this room and at that moment, I realized that I was wrong.

It wasn’t a provocation. They were simply waiting…waiting to hear what kind of answer I would say after I had seen that figure captured in the photograph. And by doing so, they handed down the last verdict for me to face the truth.

“…Fine. So what are you planning to do now?”

Upon hearing my question, they briefly glanced at each other before Imayoshi gave a slight nod towards Wakamatsu who looked back at me before letting out a long sigh as he fixed his position on the chair.

“Well, we’ve asked about this blond guy to the other dealers we’ve arrested. They all admitted that they got the drugs from this guy, so now we have a suspect,” he said while scratching the back of his head, “But the problem is, our personal experiences won’t be accepted as evidence so if we want to wipe them out, we will have to proof that this guy is really part of that yakuza group.”

“Or we catch them in the act, red-handed,” Susa, who had remained silent for awhile, suddenly popped into the conversation without even so much as a twitch from his original position. He looked at Imayoshi. “Isn’t that what you said before, Imayoshi?”

“Yes, indeed,” the guy whose name was mentioned replied. A meaningful smile decorated his face as he fixed his glasses and stared at me from behind the pair of spectacles. “But of course, the later means we will have to set up a large raid once again, just like before. We’d catch big fish, but the risks are no less small. For now, I’d say we hunt for smaller fish with smaller risk to lure in the big one later. What do you say, Aomine?”

In fact, there was no need to ask mine or anyone’s opinion. He was the leader of this squad, so whatever he said would be orders for us, no matter how ridiculous, just like how he ordered the entire team – including Satsuki – not to provide me with even the slightest bit of information of the case’s progress after that last raid until he deemed I had cooled myself down, which was today after half a year had passed. But now this guy deliberately passed the baton to me. He wasn’t letting me make the decision. Once again he was just testing me, testing my determination in order to make sure I wouldn’t cause the plan to go haywire, much like before.

“D-Dai-chan, where are you going?” Satsuki’s flustered voice burst as I walked away towards the door. She quickly stood from her seat and dashed to my side, almost as though she was trying to block the way out. “We’re not finished talking yet, are we? Let’s at least listen to the plan first.”

“Plan? Haven’t the evil glasses there just said it? Which part of it is not clear to you?” I returned her look. She was about to protest but before she could say another word, Imayoshi already cut her line.

“As always, not even a bit of respect towards your superior, huh?” he let out a long sigh purposely, making up a disappointed face at the same time although he quickly covered it up with his usual smirk as he chuckled, “Well, it doesn’t matter as long as you understand what you have to do. We will also do our part, so I hope you’d be back with a promising result. You’re the ace, after all.”

* * *

It felt nostalgic to be able to sit on my car again, holding the steering wheel after all those months of total rest. But unlike meeting all those guys, this was a good nostalgic feeling. I thought I would be rather clumsy after not driving for such a long time, but it appeared that my body remembered the way everything worked so it was all cool. Not long after I got a hold of this ride, we were already dashing on the road without problems.

I drove the car to the place where the first dealer was caught in the camera. Revisiting a crime scene which had been cleared by the forensic team weeks, and even months ago was typically useless, but this time I had no choice. Right before I left, Satsuki had insisted that I brought a copy of the full report with me, but I refused. All these six months and they only managed to dig up very few clues – which they had presented to be just a while ago – so despite feeling completely skeptical that there would be any merit in doing this, I continued driving until I reached the said destination.

_BEEP! BEEP!_

Something vibrated in my pocket along with the beeping noise. Must be Satsuki… I thought of stopping a bit to check my phone but it seemed that I was already close to the first crime scene, so I left it be.

Small stores were lining on both sides of the streets. Unlike the main road, this area was a little bit further into the suburb so there weren’t that many people around. Quite the perfect place for transaction, if I might say, but also risky. All of these stores were most likely owned by individuals; they were family businesses. In this kind of neighborhood, it was not rare for even the slightest occurrence to become rumors between the residents, let alone something as suspicious as two guys meeting up in a dark alley at night. Were they absolutely sure they wouldn’t be discovered or just plain stupid? But in any case, they were caught in action by the camera so it didn’t matter anymore.

_BEEP! BEEP!_

My phone rang and vibrated once again at the same time the destination was right in front of me. I parked my car by the side of the road, close to the street camera that caught the crime in action. When I took out my phone, its light was still on and the wallpaper was clearly displayed in plain sight. For the last time in these past six months, I couldn’t help but wonder why I was still keeping the same picture. There had been many times when I tried to change it with other, completely unrelated pictures but in the end, I could never to bring myself to do it and I despised myself for being unable to let go of it.

_Just how big of an influence does that guy have on my life?_

I pressed my forehead onto the steering wheel and exhaled a long sigh. When I shifted my glance aside, the view of the street camera came within my sight. It was standing in front of a small store. The way it was positioned made the viewfinder capable of including a bit of the alley’s inner part into its range of coverage. It was such a narrow and gloomy place, that alley. It would never attract the passerby’s attention since no one would bother looking into such a filthy place. These people probably thought the two guys doing transaction as nothing more than random thugs whom they shouldn’t mess around with unless they wanted to get into trouble.

_Just like that guy…_

Not good. Not him again. I shouldn’t be thinking about this anymore. I knew this very well, but looking at that dark, dirty alley, my mind immediately wandered off to that night one and a half year ago.

It was the last Friday of the month and it was raining hard with thunders blaring in the sky, almost as though a storm was coming. It was such a downpour that no one was walking on the streets and there weren’t even that many cars passing by. In the middle of such restless night, that guy was lying there in a dark dirty alley, much like this one. If it weren’t for his bright golden hair, he would’ve blended in with the gloomy surroundings that no one would even noticed he was there. Even now I still had no idea what pushed me to stop my car and ran towards him despite knowing very well that I would get drenched from head to toe. He was literally covered with bruises and cuts and his skin was cold as ice. He didn’t respond when I called him and tried to shake his body. If it weren’t for the weak pulse I felt on his wrist, perhaps I would’ve thought he was a goner.

Naturally, I brought him to the hospital and made sure he was treated properly for all of his wounds. However, thinking back about it I wondered if I did the right thing. If I didn’t help him at that time, if I didn’t stop my car that night, would things be different now? If I hadn’t met him in the first place, would everything be better? I couldn’t possibly…leave him to death in that dark, dirty alley, right?

… _Dark, dirty alley…?_

It felt as though every single cell in my brain stopped working for everything else except for this one single realization. Without further delay, I slammed the car’s door open and dashed towards the alley in front of me. The width was only enough for two people to fit in if they were to walk side by side and even in this broad daylight, the inner part was almost pitch black. It smelled of mold and there were trash all over, mixed with all sort of dirt that they were all in the same dirty grey color. This entire place…couldn’t be any more similar with where I found him that night.

_No, it couldn’t be it. This must be mere coincidence…right?_

Despite the efforts I put up to brush the thought aside from my mind, I spent the next hour driving like a mad man to the other three locations where the rest of the dealers were caught. As though trying to give a hard slap on my face, all of those places were exactly in the same condition: Dark, narrow and dirty alleys with unpleasant smell. Even the locations were similar one to the other as they were located further away from the main roads where not a lot of people and vehicles would pass through, especially in the middle of the night.

A conclusion I’d been struggling to avoid resurfaced in the back of my mind. I didn’t want to face it; I didn’t want to admit that my hypothesis was right. But as I fought with my own inner self, something in my pocket vibrated and rang loudly that I nearly jumped.

“Tch… What does she want at a time like this?” I cursed under my breath as Satsuki’s name was displayed on the screen of my cell phone. Nevertheless, despite all of those complains I still pressed on the “Answer” button and put it next to my ear. “What is it?”

_“What’s with that annoyed attitude?”_ her grumbles burst right through the speaker, _“You should be grateful that I went through all the troubles sending all the details to you.”_

“What details?”

“ _As I thought, you haven’t checked it yet, have you?”_ she let out a long sigh, _“I’ve e-mailed you all the details of this case a while ago. You said there’s no useful information in there, but I still thought you’re going to need it.”_

I was about to retort back, but I quickly shut my mouth. For some reason, this time my guts told me that something in those reports might be just what I needed. I told Satsuki to wait for a bit and put the call on hold as I went through her last messages. Indeed, she sent me the details in two parts: The first was a complete summary of the entire case while the second was a report of all the recent progress by the team. The photos of the four dealers caught by security cameras were on the second message with all the details of when and where they were snapped.

At that moment, I felt as though the time around me stopped for a bit.

“…Say, Satsuki…” I resumed our conversation, “The transaction in this photos…they all happened somewhere around midnight, right?”

_“Huh? Well, yes, now that you mention it, you’re right,”_ she replied with a rather surprised voice.

“And on top of that, they all took place on the last Friday of the month when the crime was held.”

_“…Dai-chan, what are you trying to say?”_

I got the feeling that she started to understand the direction I was heading to with what I just said. From the sound of it, I knew that she, too, was hoping the conclusion I was trying to make would be wrong. After all, she was the only person who knew exactly what was going on between me and him until the smallest details, but at this point there was no turning back.

“Do me a favor, Satsuki,” I told her through the phone, “You know the exact time and place all four transactions took place. Can you check what the weather was during those moments?”

_“Yes, I’m in front of my computer now. Hold on…”_ the sound of her fingers tapping on keyboards could be heard from the other side. Both of us were in complete silence before the tapping noise suddenly came into a halt, followed by the sound of her breath as she finally talked to me, _“…Dai-chan…”_

“You found it?” I asked her rather impatiently.

_“Yes…”_ she answered in a small voice, _“It was…raining. On all four occasions, it was raining.”_

As much as I expected that answer, it appeared that a part of me was hoping she would say otherwise. I was at loss of words; I didn’t know how I should respond to her, not after having this one single fact explicitly spelled right next to my ear.

_“…Dai-chan, you’re still there?”_

“…Yeah,” I muttered, “That should explain why the photos are rather blurry. It’s him. No doubt about it.”

_“Should we tell Imayoshi-san and the others about it?”_

“Hah, what do you plan to tell them?” a smirk broke out on my face as she blurted such naïve question, “All this choice of location, time and weather of the transactions have indeed made it clear to us that he was the one who set it up and deliberately made it so the actions would be caught by the security cameras. But what meaning does it have? Didn’t you hear Wakamatsu back there that our personal experiences can’t be used as evidence? Even if it can, these are all merely circumstantial evidences. I myself said it clearly in front of everyone that we can’t just link somebody to a case based on circumstantial evidence.”

_“Of course I know that. But still…”_

Satsuki’s next words trailed off into the distance as my attention was suddenly drawn somewhere else. Approximately fifty meters ahead across the street, a man stood still facing my direction. There was no way to recognize his face from this distance, but I could never mistake that familiar figure with distinguished bright golden hair. As though to spur on my emotions, he waved a hand at me and before I knew it, I was already dashing towards him without giving a care of my surroundings. He started running towards the crowded main road when I was about to close in and of course, I easily lost sight of his figure.

I cursed under my breath. What was he trying to do? Was he toying with me? I was so pissed that I slammed my fist to the lamp post standing next to me as I gritted my teeth and looked down. Both my breaths and heartbeat were racing. More than disappointed, I was so frustrated that he easily made a fool out of me in less than a few minutes. However, it was at that moment that I noticed my right foot was stepping on something.

It was a piece of paper.

Brimming with curiosity, I picked up the folded white paper tainted with the pattern of my shoeprint and opened it. When my eyes saw the content written inside, I felt as though all the blood running in my veins suddenly froze for a second.

In a handwriting that was no longer unfamiliar to me, a short sentence was written in dark blue ink.

_“See you soon.”_


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of gunshots echoed from every corner of the pier, piercing through the cold winter night. Most parts of the ground was covered by a thin layer of snow, quite a rare sight in the city even at this time of the year, but the pile of white flakes under me where I sat hidden behind a large, steel container was stained dark red.

“Dammit…!”

I cursed under my ragging breath, blowing white smokes into the air. Gritting my teeth, I tightened my grip on the gun on my right hand as I kept pressing on the perforated wound on my left shoulder in hope that it would slow down the bleeding. I didn’t know if the bullet managed to totally pierce through my shoulder or if it was still stuck there between my bones, but I was lucky enough that I could avoid the one aimed at my face. At least it only grazed me on the right eyebrow.

However, the relief I felt after barely escaping death was completely replaced by a much stronger feeling. Was it frustration or confusion or plain anger, I did not know. I felt betrayed; I had so many questions that needed answering but I had no idea how to have them answered. In my heart, I could only ask and ask and ask, but not a single reply ever came to me.

“Why? WHY?!”

I slammed my fist to the ground. Blood trickled down from the wound on my brow, but it was at that moment I heard footsteps approaching. They must be following the traces of my blood to have come this way and once again I cursed. I stood up with my gun at the ready, prepared to shoot first before I was shot. However, the moment I stepped out and took aim, my finger refused to pull the trigger before my eyes had a clear look on who was coming. It was one of the yakuza’s hitmen and in my hesitation, he took the opportunity to fire first and managed to graze the top of my right shoulder. Pain struck me once again, but I forced myself to aim and pulled the trigger twice, shooting the gun out of his hand and the second time at his leg.

_Why was I hesitating?_

The question floated into the back of my mind, but more of those hitmen appeared almost from all directions. I thought I was a goner, but several shots suddenly came from both of my sides and struck those guys down.

“Aomine-san!”

Ryou’s voice reached my ear. When I looked up, I saw him on top of a container on my right side and on the left, Wakamatsu was there with his gun, behind the container where I was hiding before.

“Aomine, we’re retreating! Captain’s order!” he shouted.

I didn’t want to fall back. I had to find him. I would not leave until I heard the truth straight from his mouth. I refused to believe that he was the one behind this mess we were in. It just couldn’t be. He wouldn’t do something like this. He would never…do this…

The white layer of snow under my feet was now stained red with the continuous drips of blood from my wounds. It was when I lifted my face that my eyes caught the figure of a man standing at the other side of the pier, on the bow of a boat that was ready to leave. His golden hair was in contrast with the black sea in the background and when I saw his face, every single cell in my body froze immediately.

_He was smiling._

* * *

“Dai-chan. Dai-chan, wake up.”

I felt someone shaking my body, calling my name repeatedly, but my eyes simply refused to open. It wasn’t until that person shook me harder that I finally came to the realization that I had apparently fallen asleep…not at home.

“Geez, you should’ve gone home if you’re tired,” Satsuki pursed her lips as she stood with both hands on her waist. It took me a few seconds to recall that I was originally planning to have a breather in the office’s rest area for a bit before I ended up dozing off completely until she woke me up. “How many days have you stayed in the office? I thought I already told you not to push yourself too hard.”

“Be quiet, Satsuki. Why are you always so noisy in the morning?” I let out a big yawn as I raised and sat on the sofa, scratching the back of my head lazily.

“Except it’s already midday and it seems that nobody dare to wake you up…or enter this place before you wake up,” she glared at me. Apparently it was true. This rest area was usually never empty especially in the middle of the day, but now we were the only ones inside. I took out my cell phone and “12:30 PM” was clearly written on the screen…along with that very same wallpaper again.

_…No. I know very well why I was hesitating back there._

It was only a dream, but even so I could still perfectly recall the memories of that night, clear as day. What if it was him? What if he was the one who came after me? What if I shot him? Those were the kinds of thoughts running inside my head, even after having a bullet digging a hole in my shoulder. I was running after him, but what would I do if I ever came to catch him for real?

“Isn’t that Ki-chan?”

My entire body twitched the moment Satsuki’s sudden remark entered my ears. I didn’t know if she meant anything by what she said and I didn’t want to know, but it was stupid of me to casually turn my cell phone on in front of her where she could easily see what was displayed on the screen. Quickly, I turned it off again and put it back in my pocket.

“It’s nothing,” I told her as I stood up and attempted to leave. Strangely enough, she didn’t press further into the matter as she merely followed me out of the rest area and back to the office.

The condition of my desk was exactly as when I left for a “little” break last night, or should I say…a few hours ago at dawn. The computer fell into _sleep mode_ on its own, but all sorts of clippings and printed reports were still scattered all around the table. I was never one to care about cleaning my own stuffs, but maybe it was a bit too much this time. No matter how focused I was on something, usually it was never this chaotic.

“Have you been reading through all the reports and articles?” Satsuki asked as she peeked at the papers on my desk, “Did you find anything?”

“If there is anything I find about this case, it is the fact that this group of yakuza is much smarter than any other criminals we’ve ever dealt with up until this point,” with a long sigh, I settled down on my chair and turned the computer on from its sleep mode, “In the first place, we never have any decisive evidence to link them to this case, let alone a specific member in their league. We knew the Triads are involved because the Hong Kong media reported the distribution of the drugs. We narrowed down our suspects to this single group because they are the only ones in this city with connections to the Triads. Had that evil glasses not receive a leak from his mysterious source, whose identity remains unknown to us until today, we wouldn’t even have been able to set up that raid half a year ago.”

_And I just have to blow our only chance to stop them once and for all._

“What about the dealers we arrested? Don’t they at least have a few details we could use?”

“I’ve re-read the result of their interrogations and I’ve even gone to meet them on my own yesterday. It was the same. The only information we have is that they received the drug package from a blond guy with golden eyes whose height was approximately 190 cm. He was wearing a mask, so the guy’s face couldn’t be confirmed.”

“If only we have stronger proofs…” Satsuki frowned with a disappointed face, “Like a fingerprint for example. That would make things so much easier.”

A fingerprint…yes. If there was a fingerprint, we wouldn’t have to crush our brains, thinking about all of these complicated stuffs. But of course, someone of his caliber wouldn’t make such an obvious mistake, would he?

As the two of us continued to ponder on it, the office door slid open. Ryou’s brown hair poked from the top of desk partitions lining between us and when our eyes met, he quickly made his way towards my desk.

“Aomine-san, Momoi-san, good morning!” he greeted us with a full 90 degree bow like a good kid on his first day of school. Without giving us a chance to respond, he frantically rummaged through his bag and pulled out a lunch box before handing it out to me in such a formal gesture that for a moment there, I thought he was about to hand over a report. “Aomine-san, I brought you lunch as you requested.”

“Ah? Oh, right. I did ask you to make me one yesterday. Thanks,” I took the lunch box from his hands. If he didn’t mention it, I’d probably forgotten that I had asked him to do this for me since I was so obsessed with the investigation.

“Geez, if you want to have a _bento_ that badly, you could’ve asked me to. No need to trouble Sakurai-kun with that,” Satsuki frowned at me, but I quickly brushed her complaint aside.

“No, thanks. I’m not going back to the hospital.”

“How rude!”

“I-It’s alright, Momoi-san. I’m not troubled at all!”

The two of them continued with their bickering, but I wanted no part in that. I was just about to continue reading through the reports when something came up to my mind. My eyes shifted towards the lunch box Ryou had just given me, which was now sitting quietly on my desk. It was only a random feeling rising all of a sudden in my guts and sometimes I didn’t like how it always made me twitched from a sudden wave of excitement, but whenever I felt like this, usually it would be right no matter if I had hoped otherwise. Without further delay, I opened – once again – the photos snapped by the security cameras with the four dealers in it.

“…Say, Ryou…” I called out to him, which immediately stopped his conversation with Satsuki who also turned at me immediately, “When you guys arrested those dealers, the red pills were also confiscated, right?”

“Y-Yes. They are currently in the evidence room,” the brown hair replied with confused eyes, “Would you like me to get it for you?”

“No. But what of the box or whatever kind of container they received along with the pills from that blond middleman? Did you also confiscate that?” I blurted my next question. The two of them seemed taken aback. I didn’t remove my sight from them as they looked at each other in bewilderment, but it appeared that that they did not expect to be asked with such a question. Either those containers were in our possessions as not-so-important evidences or they were never confiscated in the first place at all. “Did Imayoshi oversee the captures of these people? Do you think he would know if I ask him this?”

“Of course. I mean, he is the one in charge,” Satsuki responded before returning the question to me, “But why are you asking us this all of a sudden? Did you find something after all?”

“Fingerprints,” I shifted aside so they could see the pictures displayed on my computer screen, “That blond middleman caught in these photos was not wearing gloves. His fingerprints should be on the containers received by the dealers.”

“Are you sure, Aomine-san? He could’ve been wearing light-colored gloves,” Ryou said as he stared at those pictures, but a second later he immediately stepped back and went into his apologizing mode as though he just blurted out something insulting. “Ah, I’m s-sorry! I didn’t mean to d-doubt your hypothesis but I just thought m-maybe…”

“Well, what a coincidence. I was just about to ask you to do me a favor,” I snorted as a smirk tore my lips apart, “Ryou, why don’t you go check with those dealers if that guy was wearing gloves or not?”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

“I think I’d better go with him,” said Satsuki after Ryou ran off for the interrogation, “I will ask what kind of container they received, so I could ask Imayoshi-san about—“

“Not yet,” I cut her sentence, “Not yet, Satsuki. I need to talk to you.”

Despite yet another questioning look on her face, she followed me quietly out of the office and to the hallway. A little bit further before the three-way junction up ahead was a vending machine with a bench next to it. I popped in a few coins and pressed the button for a can of coffee.

“So, what do you want to talk me about?” she asked while sitting down on the bench. I didn’t have to look at her directly to feel her gaze following my every move even as I opened the coffee and took the first sip while leaning against the wall right next to her.

“…Is that evil glasses off duty today? I haven’t seen him anywhere,” I said in a low voice to avoid the few people walking in the hallway to overhear. It wasn’t usually crowded around here this time of the day, but it was impossible to be rid of others completely and picking a totally isolated place would only make it looked all the more suspicious. It would be better to just pretend that we were chatting while taking a little break here.

“Imayoshi-san left with Susa-san and Wakamatsu-san very early this morning before I woke you up. We received a report that there is some sort of ‘duel club’ where the fighters’ strengths are enhanced with those drugs.”

“So they’re raiding the place, huh?” I took another sip of the coffee, “Well, good luck to them.”

“Dai-chan, what is it that you want to talk to me? You can’t be seriously taking me here after ‘chasing’ Sakurai-kun away just to ask where Imayoshi-san is, right?”

“So you do realize that I chase him away by using those dealers as an excuse, huh?” once again, a smirk tore my lips apart even though I found nothing as particularly amusing in her remark. Of course, she didn’t laugh in the slightest bit with those round pink eyes staring so intently at me as if they were trying to squeeze all the truth out of my mouth. I returned her look for a brief moment before shifting my gaze away once again. There was still a tiny bit of doubt in my heart whether I should really go ahead and tell her about this, but if I kept this to myself, I just knew that she would quickly find out anyway and worse, tell the entire squad about it. “If, Satsuki… If we manage to find him, what is the first thing you would do?”

“What’s with that question?” she raised her eyebrows in confusion, “Anyone would’ve wanted to make him tell everything he knows about the drugs and possibly all other crimes related to that group of yakuza he belongs to.”

“Yes, that would be obvious,” I said while staring at the opened mouth of the coffee can, “But if you were in my shoes, what would you do if you manage to find him?”

“…I think…I would want him to tell the truth…” replied her after a brief pause, “I would want him to tell me why he did what he had done back there.”

“And after that? After you’ve heard the truth from him, what would you do?”

Once again she paused. Whether she was trying to picture the entire thing in her head or she simply had no idea of how to answer, I didn’t know. But after awhile, she looked at me and returned the question.

“What about you? What would you do after you make him tell the truth?”

“I don’t know,” I let out a chuckle for no reason, “Depending on his answer, I might end up killing him and kill myself after that.”

“Dai-chan!”

“It’s the truth,” still staring at the pitch black liquid inside the can from the small hole on the aluminum surface, I drew a smile even though I didn’t know why, “I just have no idea what I’m going to do with him that it scares me. If the evil glasses heard that, he’s gonna take me out of the force for real this time, huh?”

That’s right. Even though none of them had ever said it that way, what they did to me in the past six months of my recovery wasn’t so simple as to merely leave me in the dark so I would not be stressed out by work. I was taken out of the force temporarily. Of course, the recovery of my wounds was also one of their intentions, but the main reason was they didn’t want to have a bigger mess than they already had.

“It’s not like we were punishing you…” Satsuki said with her head hung down, looking at her thumbs playing against each other on her lap, “We need you in the team, but it just wouldn’t do if you hadn’t calmed down.”

“Hah! You don’t have to feel bad about it. Six months are more than enough for me to understand that it was a punishment and what I was being punished about,” once again I snorted and let out a laugh. Indeed, in the back of my mind I could still hear the evil glasses’ words clearly when he talked to me all by himself the first time I regained consciousness after they took out the bullet from my shoulder.

“…But we’re going to catch him together with the team this time, aren’t we?” Satsuki looked at me while putting up a reassuring smile as always, “You won’t have to do everything by yourself. And of course, we will not let you commit such a reckless thing.”

“I wonder about that…”

Before she could open her mouth to utter another word, I pulled out a scrap of paper from my pocket. The back side had a shoeprint on it while the other side was mostly empty with only a short sentence in dark blue ink written on the surface. I showed it to her and it didn’t take long for her eyes to go wide upon recognizing the handwriting on the paper.

“That’s…?! When did you—?!”

“Three days ago. Right after I called you from the fourth crime scene, he showed himself to me, only to disappear among the crowds when I tried to chase after him,” I said as I took a sip of the coffee, letting her had the scrap of paper in her hands, “That was the only thing he left for me.”

“But… Why are you showing this to me?” she stared at me in confusion. For someone with such a strong intuition, this time she was surprisingly slow. However, for some reason I had a feeling that she actually already had a picture of what my intention was. She just didn’t want to admit it and hoped that I would say otherwise. Unfortunately, what I would say to her after this might only be a confirmation of her intuition.

“We already have clues on how to track him down,” I replied, “If even one of the dealers Ryou is currently interrogating confirmed the guy wasn’t wearing gloves and if we could find the container of the drugs, it would be a breeze to get his fingerprint and issue an official warrant for the entire squad to hunt him down. That way, there would be a chance that you guys could find and arrest him first before I do.”

“What do you mean before you do? Aren’t we going to do this together with the team?”

It appeared that she originally intended to say more, but she stopped herself the moment she looked at my face. I didn’t know what kind expression I was making since I couldn’t possibly look at my own face, but apparently it was enough to get my message across without having to put it into words.

I swallowed the last sip of the coffee and threw the can into a nearby trash bin. She was no longer sitting on the bench, but standing in front of me as though trying to block my way with an indescribable look on her face. Now I felt kinda bad, but I had no intention of changing my mind.

“I will abide by whatever orders given to me…” I said to her, “…if the warrant is issued before I can find him.”

* * *

_“I see you have regained consciousness. That’s a good start. How are you feeling, Aomine?”_

_“Well then, take it easy for the time being and don’t concern yourself with the case until your wounds are completely healed, alright? We’ve talked with the doctor and I think six months should be enough time for you to relax your mind.”_

_“What do you mean you’re going to kill me? Do you not understand the situation you are in and the situation you have caused?”_

_“I will not blame you for the revelation of our plan to the enemies, but you have involved your personal feelings in this matter. You even endangered the lives of two of your comrades as you were so obsessed to pursue him despite the obvious impossibility. If Wakamatsu and Sakurai were killed because you refused to retreat as ordered, how will you take responsibility?”_

_“I have warned you far before it came to this, Aomine. I have told you, that if you are far too obsessed with something, you will lose sight of everything else around you.”_

The sound of siren screaming in the distance reached my ears. I opened my eyes, and with my arms resting on the steering wheel, I lifted my face to see several police cars passing through the main road up ahead. An ambulance was also within the group and the siren apparently came from it. Must be the evil glasses and his team… I wonder if there was a victim or two during that raid. The effect of that drug was real scary, no joke about it.

Still sitting quietly in my car, I didn’t take my eyes away as those groups eventually disappeared from sight. The roaring siren was so loud that it even reached the place where I parked my car a bit further into the suburb although it naturally began to fade little by little. I let out a long sigh. The sky was covered entirely by dark grey clouds and as expected, it didn’t take long for drips of water to start falling onto the ground. Little by little at first, then all of a sudden it turned into a downpour.

…This was the same as that day, wasn’t it? It was also around this time of the year when I found him that night. I absolutely despised all these ridiculous thoughts of nostalgia, especially since it wasn’t exactly a good memory judging from how it turned out in the end, but the timing just couldn’t be any more right. The more I remember about it, the more pissed I felt. It was like a full-body itch; I couldn’t just stay still and wait until an order was issued to officially hunt him down despite knowing very well the risk I could bring to myself and the team for moving on my own accord.

I took a glance at the digital clock on the dashboard. Just a few more minutes until six o’clock in the evening… I should start moving again since there were still a couple of places where he could be found. However, as I shifted to fix my position on the seat, the screen of my cell phone lit up with a brief vibration and two beeps. It was a message from Satsuki.

_“We’re running the fingerprint test right now. I will inform you again of any progress, so please don’t do anything reckless by yourself, alright?”_

Heh, gotta apologize to that if she ever said those words directly to my face. I had no intention of stopping here, not now. It was already far too late for me.

Yeah, too late. Maybe I was already beyond help even before they took me out of the force temporarily, before I saw him smiling from the boat on the night of that raid, before this bullet pierced through the flesh on my shoulder. Ever since the first time I met him, maybe I was already playing right into his hand. The influence he had on my life was just that great, out of anyone’s expectation, perhaps even himself.

_In the end, I wasted all those six months given to me to cool my head down._

The sound of thunders rumbling in the sky was so loud that I could even hear it from inside the car. The trees lining on the pedestrian on both sides of the road looked as though they were ready to be blown away with only a little bit more wind. I changed the gear of my car and began to move slowly towards the main road. Several places I hadn’t visited popped out in my head as I was trying to decide where I should look for him next. He wasn’t the typical sort of person who could be found easily in places he usually frequent, so a different approach might be needed to track him down. Even the owner of the place where he used to work, including his former colleagues, hadn’t heard a single thing of him these past six months. If I could understand how his mind worked, maybe it would be easier to narrow down the possible locations where he could be found.

_…How…his mind works…?_

Something struck me as odd. No… To be honest, it had been odd since the beginning. Had I not been absent for half a year, it would not be long until I realized that the location and timing of the transactions were set up exactly as our first meeting. In fact, I could point it out the first day I returned to the force. It was unnatural either for someone of his caliber to leave fingerprints on things that would very likely get confiscated if the dealers were caught – which were the drugs containers – and it was even more unnatural that his unprotected hands were seen in all four of the pictures. In the first place, why picked a place that obviously had a security camera nearby?

_“See you soon.”_

The tires of my car screeched as I stomped hard on the brake, turning the steering wheel 180 degree. Horns were screaming as angry drivers on the roads protested and cursed at me, but I paid them no attention. As soon as I managed to face the opposite direction, I hit the pedal gas hard enough that the car almost jumped, leaving all those chorus of horns behind.

_Dammit! How stupid of me!_

The sight up ahead was getting worse. Even with the help of the car’s main lights and streetlamps, even with the wipers functioning at maximum speed, the raindrops were far too much to be brushed aside. I had lost of count of how many times I nearly crashed into another car or missed a turn, but despite the ultimate danger I was bringing to myself, my leg refused to step away from the gas pedal. I might die because of this, but still I stomped harder on it, forcing the engine to roar as I dashed through the road at full speed until a familiar building finally came within my view.

It was the place where I lived.

The parking lot was not large enough as only a few residents owned a car, but fortunately there was one empty space so without wasting more time, I quickly claimed it as mine. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the pouring raindrops immediately drenched me entirely from head to toe. It was an open space with almost no tree for cover, but at this moment I had no time to worry about such trivial things. Splashing noises followed my every step until I finally reached the building, leaving dirty shoeprints on the terrace. There was an elevator, but I was far too eager to quickly reach my place that I decided to run up the stairs to the third floor.

_If only I realized it sooner… How long had he been waiting there?_

Now that I’d come to this, everything was actually so obvious. The choice of location, time and weather… It was all to show me that I was his only target all along. The others might realize the pattern but it would only make them loss since it held no meaning for them. Even Satsuki wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t pointed it out.

_This leaves his deliberate action of showing his unprotected hands as the only mystery left…_

But before I could think of an answer, I had already arrived in front of the door to my apartment. I stood there for a moment, staring at the room number for no reason even though there was no need to double check since I was the owner of the place behind that door. Between my racing breaths, I once again recalled the message written on that scrap of paper.

_“See you soon.”_

I might’ve been blinded by emotions upon seeing his figure all of a sudden after all these months, but it could only mean one thing. The only place where we could meet up without giving even a hint of the location…was no other than the place where we had been living together. My house.

I took out a set of keys from my pocket, inserting one of them into the small hole on the knob before turning it over with a click. The door slowly swung open, and the moment I stepped inside, it didn’t take long for me to find a pair of familiar shoes sitting neatly at the entrance. Almost at the same time with the sound of closing door, I heard footsteps approaching from inside. They were light and calm footsteps, one that I had known far too well. Soon, the figure of a tall young man with golden hair golden eyes stood right before me. A smile was drawn on his face, whose beautiful features had not changed even in the slightest bit.

“Welcome home, Aomine-cchi,” he let out a soft laugh, “It’s been awhile.”


	3. Chapter 3

_*** A/N: I'm so sorry this took a long time to post! My work's been hectic these past few weeks. OTL  
Anyway, this is my first attempt writing a sex scene, so I apologize if it doesn't turn out good. :')_

* * *

 

_“…My name…is Kise. Kise…Ryouta…”_

Shimmering golden hair; long eyelashes adorning the pair of spheres in his eyes with the same color as the silky-smooth threads on his head. Even with bruises and cuts all over his body, the natural beauty of his face still stood out albeit the fact that he was a guy. It was the type of pretty face which women would find irresistible and men filled with jealousy. At the same time, however, he left such a fragile impression that no one – if they had a heart – would not find pitiable.

That was the very first impression I had when I found him back then. Beaten and wounded, he was left to die in a dirty alley under a heavy rain in the middle of the night. Only after the treatment from the hospital was completed that he regained consciousness, and the first thing he did was to jump in fright when he saw another person, me, was waiting next to his bed in that white room. Even after I had introduced myself and explained the situation like any other normal person would, he did not utter a single word until I finally asked for his name, which he replied in such a timid voice that his lips were trembling. “ _Where do you live?”_ I asked him, but the only respond he gave was to slowly shake his head despite showing neither agreement nor disagreement when asked if he was homeless.

Whether it was simply out of pity or not I didn’t know, but even now it remained a mystery to me how I could have such a thought at that time. I thought of offering him to stay with me…at my home. I thought of bringing him back, despite knowing full well that he was a complete stranger whose background was absolutely unknown. In my mind, I only had one thought, which was never to leave him alone and I told him so.

And he cried. Without uttering even a word, without asking even a single question, he quietly cried as he followed me back home. The only thing he ever asked of me back then was…

“ _Is it okay for me to be here?”_

Days passed…and weeks, and months. He was only 20 years old when I found him that night, six years younger than me, but he was actually quite an independent person. Despite the extremely vulnerable condition he was in when we first met, he was in fact a very cheerful individual, very outgoing and friendly if not over-lively at times. He got along easily with Satsuki and the others almost immediately after they met and never once left a negative impression on them. And after awhile…eventually we ended up crossing the lines.

For what reason exactly we decided to stop being friends and went over that way, I never knew. It was as though we simply abandoned the fact that we were of the same sex and we had no regret in doing so. Day by day, he grew into someone whose existence was very precious to me, so dear that I thought I would be content to live just by having him in my arms. Yes, I fell in love with him. I came to love him so much that my entire life revolved only around him. I felt like I could no longer live without him at my side, and it seemed that…I was indeed blinded of everything else around me, thus the reason of why I easily fell into his trap.

For the past few years, the police had been struggling to hunt down a certain group of yakuza believed to be the mastermind behind the distribution of a type of dangerous drug, named _AS-1220_. I myself was assigned on this case since two years ago, months before I met him. Usually I always kept my work and private life separated, but on that day half a year ago, I couldn’t just stay quiet about it. After all this time, we finally managed to set up an ambush to stop the yakuza once and for all, but at the same time the risk on our part was no smaller. I was very well aware that there was a possibility I would not come back alive, so a few days before the raid, I told him that I would take part in a very dangerous mission.

At that time, he was quiet. He almost didn’t say even a single word, so I thought it might be difficult for him to accept it, which was completely understandable. I had never been so wrong in my life before, and the worst of all was that I only realized it on the night of the raid…

_“You… Why are you here?!”_

_“Why wouldn’t I be here, Aomine-cchi?”_

_“Don’t be stupid! This place could be war zone any time soon. How did you even get here in the first place?!”_

_“Ah? I thought you already figured it out.”_

_“What are you say—“_

_“…You’re right. It’s gonna be war any time soon. Thank you for letting me have the first shot…Aomine-cchi…”_

* * *

“Welcome home, Aomine-cchi. It’s been awhile.”

His voice calmly yet forcefully pierced through the heavy silence at the entrance of my house. That gentle, but rather childlike smile had not changed even in the slightest bit. The beautiful lines of his face, the virtually slender yet perfectly-proportioned figure, the way he walked out to the entrance and welcomed my arrival… They were exactly as how I remembered they were. He did not change; there wasn’t anything that changed…except the fact that this guy smiling in front of me turned out to be the one who engraved the perpetual scar on my left shoulder.

“You’re totally drenched, aren’t you? The weather outside must be worse than I thought,” with a concerned look, he let out a sigh, “Wait here for a bit, I’ll go get a towel.”

Whether his worries were for real or mere acts, the way he delivered it was so natural that even I thought for a second he might actually meant it. It felt like my entire being was being sucked into the past, back to the time when we were nothing more than a couple living together and I almost let myself got trapped completely by such delusion had I not felt a _pang_ on my left shoulder – like a wakeup call – right where the scar was forever implanted on my skin.

“…Have you been here the whole time?” one way or another, I finally managed to bring myself to speak. He stopped walking and returned to face my direction. Once again, a smile was drawn on his lips as he answered.

“Yes, since a few days ago,” he scratched the side of his face with his index finger, slightly casting his gaze down, “I’ve been waiting for you, Aomine-cchi, but you only came now. As I thought, you haven’t changed at all. Whenever you have your mind on to something, you would forget about everything else, even things that are actually right in front of you.”

“...What is your purpose?” I asked him after a brief pause, knowing very well that the last sentence was obviously said on purpose, “Why the scenes set-up? Why deliberately leaving proofs and hints?”

“So you realized that they were on purpose,” replied him with a soft laugh, “Of course you did. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here, would you?”

“Answer me, Kise,” I glared at him straight in the eyes; anger began to grow in my heart, “What is your intention?”

“What else could it be?” he calmly returned my look without even the slightest hint of fear, “I want to see you, Aomine-cchi. I want to see the face you’d have when we finally meet again after such a long time. I want to see your face when you see me again, the face you’d make towards me after I drill a hole through your shoulder that night.”

The last bit of calm I’d been struggling to preserve flew out of the window. It was as if all controls I had in me broken lose all at once, and the next second I was already grabbing at the collar of his shirt, slamming him hard onto the wall. He let out a faint groan as he grimaced in pain despite still retaining his composure.

“So I was right, huh? So everything you did was really to lure me back to you here,” with my hand gripping tight onto his collar, I scowled at him, “Don’t you realize that the others might also notice the hints you left, especially your fingerprints, and come to get you first before I do?”

“Yes, but in fact, they didn’t,” he answered. The gentle smile he’d been wearing began to change; the look on his eyes sharpened. It was the same expression he had on the boat that night, a smile so villainous that it looked as if he was someone else I didn’t know. “It was a gamble, Aomine-cchi. I never underestimate the abilities of Momo-cchi and your friends, but at the same time I have confidence that only you would notice the clues I left.”

“And why would you have such confidence?”

“Because…” his golden eyes looked straight into mine, “You just love me so much, don’t you, Aomine-cchi?”

By letting anger took control of myself, I knew that I was only answering to his provocation, but even so I couldn’t stop myself. Before I knew it, my hand already moved away from his collar right to his throat. He let out a small gasp. As I tightened my grip, I could feel the pulse running under his skin, but still he didn’t put up any significant fight even when he was being squeezed out of air. And at that moment, a dangerous thought rose inside my head.

I could kill him. I could kill him just like this. All I had to do was to strengthen my grip on his throat a bit more and that would be it. After that, I’d just shoot myself in the head. That way, we could die together without having to hurt or be hurt any longer. Yes… Just like this, we could go together to the other world and live side by side forever, forgetting all the ruthless truths we were forced to face in this world. Wouldn’t that be easy? I wasn’t 100% sure when I said this to Satsuki back there, but now that I thought about it properly, it didn’t sound too bad, did it?

_“Welcome home, Aomine-cchi!”_

Just when I was about to put the last bit of strength needed to end it all into the grip of my hand, a voice resounded in the back of my mind. It was a voice I hadn’t heard for a long time, and along with it a familiar face also surfaced from among my memories.

_“Oh, my god, you’re totally drenched! Wait here, I’ll get you a towel!”_

_“Aomine-cchi, I’ve prepared the bath. Quickly take off your clothes so you won’t catch a cold.”_

What was I seeing at a moment like this? Was this another spell he put on me so I would fall into the same delusion all over again and refrained from killing him?

_“You’re done already? Here, I’ve made you hot coffee to warm up.”_

_“It’s getting late. Shouldn’t you go to sleep? You have morning shift tomorrow, right?”_

_“What? You want to do that now? I thought I’ve just told you to go to sleep. Guess it can’t be helped…”_

_“Aomine-cchi, I love you… I love you so much…”_

At that moment, my eyes were opened, and the first thing I saw in front of me was his pained face with both hands gripping onto my arm. He didn’t say even a word; he was no longer able to, and when I released the grip I had on his throat, the hands clutching onto my arm went limp. Immediately after I let go of him, his body slid off from the wall and fell slamming onto the floor with a loud _thud_. And just like that, he didn’t make even a single move, not even so much as a twitch.

…What was I about to do? This realization was the first thing that came into my mind the moment I saw his unmoving body lying on the floor, right next to my feet. Was I just about to kill him with my own hands? I knelt down, carefully examining him to check on his condition and a weak pulse ran through the side of his neck under my fingers. When I noticed that, both a sense of relief and pain struck my heart.

How did I even think of killing him? No matter what he had done, no matter how cruel the betrayal he’d done to me, he was still the same person I met on that rainy night, the same person I had lived together and fallen in love with. Even if others were to call me a fool, he was the person whose existence I had found so precious that I told myself I would be content to live just by having him in my arms. I couldn’t kill him… I could never kill him.

_Because he is the one person I could never live my life without._

Still kneeling on the floor, I gently took his motionless body into my arms. His head slowly slid off and leaned against my chest. Feeling his faint breaths on my skin, I pulled him into a strong embrace as I buried my face on his shoulder.

“Kise… Why do you have to be on their side?”

* * *

The sound of thunders rumbling could be heard from the distance. Drops of rainwater hitting the windows outside were still quite clear despite having slowed down a bit in frequency. I stepped out of the bathroom, still steaming from the hot shower with towels wrapped around my shoulders and waist. When I looked outside, it seemed that the downpour was starting to come to an end even though the sky was still pitch black.

_So it didn’t turn out to be a storm after all._

Dressing myself in a plain white T-shirt and light brown knee-length pants, I turned my sight towards the person lying motionless on my bed. Under the golden threads of his bangs, his eyes remained closed. He was still unconscious, even though the tempo of his breaths already returned to normal, but with a red mark forming the shape of my handprint clearly visible around his neck, I supposed it was to be expected.

_After all, he WAS on the brink of death._

Just half an hour ago, I was about to choke the air out of him and let him die of suffocation, but now even the sense of touch seemed to have left the palm of my hands. I felt like an empty shell. Even as I settled down on the other side of the bed, I didn’t feel anything anymore, even though he was lying right behind my back. There was no more anger, no more pain. All I felt was nothing but hollow.

“…Mm…”

With a faint groan, I could feel his body shifting ever so slightly on the bed. There was a brief pause, a complete silence dying the entire room, but it was before long that a weak hoarse voice reached my ears.

“Ao…mine-cchi…?”

Without so much as a twitch, I remained idle in my current position. I could feel he shifted again, probably trying to get up and eventually he asked another question to me.

“What time is it now?”

“…Half past seven,” quietly, I reached for my cell phone sitting on top of a small desk next to the bed and read the time displayed on the screen for him. I had a feeling that he saw the picture I used as the wallpaper, the picture of the two of us together when we celebrated Christmas for the first time as real lovers. I didn’t know what kind of thoughts he would have on his mind if he really saw it, but since he didn’t raise another question, I decided to leave it be, as well. There wouldn’t be any merit in scrutinizing the fact that I was still using that picture even after everything that had happened. He probably thought nothing of it anyway.

“I guess I was out for quite awhile,” he replied, still in a hoarse voice although it began to sound a little better, “Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t finish me off back there, Aomine-cchi.”

I wondered if that villainous smile had taken control of his face again as he said that. Even in the midst of my anger awhile ago, one way or another I could tell that he came here prepared to die in my hands.

“Why did you come here?” without turning my back, I asked him, “You should’ve known that I might really kill you.”

“I told you I want to see your face. Plus, I still have the key and you don’t seem to have changed the lock,” he answered with a faint chuckle, “Well, but there is another reason, though…”

He didn’t speak up immediately. I didn’t know if he was trying to pique on my curiosity or simply testing my reaction, but I chose to remain silent and gave him time to continue speaking on his own.

“Eleven o’clock, Saturday night next week at the same place,” he said with a calm, yet serious tone without even a hint of provocation, “They’re going to smuggle a large quantity of those pills to Hong Kong. It might be sudden, but if you guys manage to ambush them, it’s going to be a big jump since some important people in the business would be there.”

It took me a few seconds to fully digest what he said. Instead of picking on my curiosity, the way he revealed the yakuza’s upcoming big plan simply struck me as odd. Of course, it was only natural that what I felt in the end was mere distrust.

“Is this another one of your trap, Kise?” I replied with a faint snort, “Just so you know, it’s not gonna work anymore.”

“Well, it’s up to you whether you want to believe it or not,” without changing the tone of his voice, he answered my question with ease, “Though I certainly wouldn’t risk my life coming here only to tell lies that even kids could discover.”

“And what if the act of risking your life is in fact the very tactic you’ve set up to gain my trust?”

“As I said, it’s up to you,” he repeated his previous answer, “But if you’re really that skeptical about me, why don’t you have your team to confirm it first? As far as I know, Imayoshi-san has quite a dependable – let us say – _network_ when it comes to information, am I right?”

…Certainly, what he was saying actually made sense. After what he had done before, of course he of all people should know that it would be pointless to make another lie, especially if he himself was the one to say it. However, that did not mean it could easily erase the peculiarity I felt in his behavior.

“Why are you telling me all this?” I asked him, still without turning my back, “Aren’t you supposed to be part of them? Are you betraying your own people now?”

“I have my own reasons…” with a soft laugh, he replied, “Come to the pier next Saturday, Aomine-cchi. If you find me, I promise I will tell you everything.”

And with that, he let out a small groan as he stretched out his body, just like someone flexing his stiff body after a long sleep.

“Well then, I’d better get going,” he said while letting out a sigh, as though in relief, “Honestly, I’ve been borrowing your bed to sleep as I waited for you to come home. It still feels as comfy as ever. Shall we do it here one last time before I leave?”

I didn’t respond to his provocation, but he didn’t even bother to wait for my reaction as he stood from the bed and strolled to the middle of the room. From the corner of my eyes, I could see his gaze sweeping across the entire place in silence before he made a comment.

“I haven’t been here for a few months, but no matter how many times I look at it now, this place really hasn’t changed at all, huh?” he said with his eyes still looking around, “Even my clothes and other stuffs are still here. Didn’t you throw it away? Ah, but maybe you couldn’t do it when you’re still recovering from your injuries.”

He probably knew that by now, whatever he said wouldn’t agitate me anymore. However, still he had a look around, commenting here and there at almost every little thing he found nostalgic. I didn’t know if I was only imagining things, but bit by bit, the tone of his voice began to sound nostalgic, as well, and eventually I couldn’t help but had a glance on what he was doing.

He was standing there, right in front of the desk I usually used when I had something to work at home. A little to the right was a photo in simple rectangular frame, the same picture displayed on my cell phone. His golden eyes were staring at it with an indescribable look as he kept muttering on his own.

“Did you know, Aomine-cchi? That was the first time I ever celebrated Christmas with anyone,” he said without turning his sight towards me, “I was really happy. Even now I still kept the present you gave me back there. It was the first time someone ever gave me a Christmas present.”

A brief silence hung heavily between the two of us as he said no more for a moment. However, all of a sudden he slowly retraced his steps back, sitting at the side of the bed a little bit further from me. I glanced over my shoulder, and I saw his long fingers running through the golden threads of his hair.

“You’re weird… You’re really weird, don’t you know that, Aomine-cchi?” he let out a faint chuckle, “When I first got here a few days ago, I almost couldn’t believe you’re still keeping that silly photo of us, even going as far as to leave it as your phone’s wallpaper.”

“…I haven’t found another picture I could use to replace it,” I replied. As I thought, he really did see the display on my phone back there, but once again he let out a soft laugh without lifting his face. I wasn’t sure of what I heard, but it sounded as if his voice was shaking a bit when he spoke.

“You’re weird…” he repeated the same words, “Just like before, even if you had no idea who I was, you still picked me up and brought me to the hospital, even going as far as to allow a stranger like me to stay unconditionally at your place. What are you gonna do if I turned out to be a serial killer or some psychopath or something like that?”

“Well, you certainly didn’t look like one,” I told him bluntly, “And I just couldn’t leave you to die in that alley.”

“Yeah, you said that to me, too …” he muttered. A moment afterwards, I could feel the bed creaking a bit as he moved closer to me, eventually leaning his head against my left shoulder. With a small voice, he softly whispered with his hand tugging at my clothes. “Say, Aomine-cchi… When I asked if we should do it again here one last time, I really mean it, you know?”

“…Tell me one good reason why I shouldn’t reject it.”

As I said this, I shifted my gaze at him, but from this angle I wasn’t able to have a look at his face since it was covered under his bangs. However, a second later he burst out laughing all of a sudden, pulling his body away from me as he returned to his original position.

“Hahaha, why so serious, Aomine-cchi? I can’t believe you actually fall for that, pfft— Ahahahaha!“ he covered his face with one hand while he laughed. Eventually, he rose from the bed and said his goodbye once again without sparing me even a single glance, “Well then, I think I’ll leave now before you kill me for real this time. Hopefully I’ll get to see your face again next week. Bye, Aomine-cchi~”

One step… Two steps… He began to walk away from me, but as if everything was moving in a slow motion, I saw scenes of him in the back of my mind, rolling like an old film with his voice echoing clearly inside my head. The sudden shot he fired on my shoulder, the villainous smile he wore as he stood on the boat that night, the face he showed when he welcomed me home… I couldn’t stop hearing all the agitations he’d been spouting since he showed himself to me in that devilish face, but at the end of it all, the only thing I kept hearing and seeing was the way his voice trembled as he questioned my action of saving him that night…and the way he stood in front of my desk just now, quietly looking at our picture inside the frame.

Our picture…together…

The very image of the scene when we took the picture suddenly flashed into my eyes, bursting through all of the ruthless memories of the last half a year. I could see his golden hair shimmering under the lights, I could feel the warmth of our fingers entwined with each other’s as we stood side by side. I could hear his voice whispering gratitude to me for celebrating Christmas with him…but most of all, the blissful smile he had on his face at that time, glowing bright even under the shadows of the night.

_“Aomine-cchi, thank you so much for everything!”_

Before I knew it, my body already moved on its own and pulled him hard on the arm that he fell back almost effortlessly. I slammed him down on the bed, pinning him right under me as I gripped both of his hands on the wrists. He hadn’t had the chance to say a thing, let alone to struggle. He was so caught off guard that he could only lay there while staring at me with both eyes opened wide in surprise and confusion.

“…Who’s the weird one now?” I bluntly asked him while gazing down at his face. He kept looking at me, unable to believe what I’d done with tears streaming down from his eyes. As I felt his hands shaking in my grip, it was obvious that he had given up completely when he decided to leave. “Though I did fall for your tricks back then, it seems you’re not that good of a liar, after all. What kind of idiot would cry over the lie they made by themselves?”

“I’m not…crying…” he turned his face aside, clutching the palm of his hands so hard that his knuckles turned white, “I’m not crying.”

“So you’re telling me that you’re sweating from the eyes now,” I returned it to him, only to be replied with silence as he bit his lips, “…Kise, why did you do that?”

At first, he was reluctant to answer. He didn’t even want to see me in the eyes, but I kept calling his name, repeating my question until he finally opened his trembling lips.

“If I…didn’t shoot first…they will…shoot at you…and you’d die…”

“Why do you have to shoot me? Why are you even with them in the first place?” I dug further, but once again he refused to answer, “Won’t you tell me…Kise?”

I released my grip on his wrist, and in its place I pulled him close to me, stroking the back of his head with my fingers. I thought I could hear him letting out a small gasp in surprise, but it was before long that he slowly returned my embrace, clutching hard onto the back of my shirt as he started to sob.

“I’m…sorry…” he mumbled between his sniffles, “Aomine-cchi…I’m sorry…”

Again and again, he repeated those words without stopping. I could feel the warmth of his tears on my shoulder and my chest felt tight. Why must he be one of them? Why must we stand on different sides? More and more of these thoughts came flooding into me, but as soon as I saw his face when we pulled away, I could no longer hold myself back. Without a second thought, I closed the distance between us and pressed my lips on his for a kiss.

“Mmph—?!”

His eyes went wide in surprise, but soon he once again wrapped his arms around my back. How long had it been since I last had a taste of his lips? We only just started but I felt like my self-control was already beginning to slip away. This touch… This heat… My mind might’ve been occupied by that incident all this time, but I couldn’t deny the fact that my body was craving for him, so much that I couldn’t think of anything else right now.

Wet sounds began to reverberate in my ears as I slipped my tongue into his slightly opened lips, entwining with his. While our kisses grew intense, I forcefully pushed his shirt up, exposing the bare white skin underneath. Kise’s body squirmed as he let out a small moan when I began to caress the soft muscles on his chest.

“Nn… Ah, A-Aomine-cchi…?!”

He broke away from our kisses as his body almost jumped in surprise when I lightly pinched on one of his nipples. As I toyed with it on purpose, Kise’s breaths grew faster; his chest beginning to visibly raise and fall. Before, he wasn’t very sensitive around that area but his body probably became accustomed to it the more we did it. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. To be honest, I considered this an achievement as the time I spent to make his entire body responded to every little thing I did eventually produced a satisfying result. With this thought in mind, I kept arousing him in that place while licking the side of his neck before starting to suck on it.

“Ao…mine-cchi… You’re going to leave a mark,” he struggled to speak between his racing breaths. Above the shape of my handprint on his throat was now a small red mark, which stood out more visibly.

“Isn’t that okay? That’s actually my intention in the first place,” I replied nonchalantly, leaving another mark on his neck before shifting down a little to nib at his collarbone, then to his other nipple which I hadn’t touched. He pushed his chest up as a loud moan escaped his lips when I licked and sucked at it.

“Ah! E-Enough with that…Aomine-cchi!”

“Be quiet for a bit. You’re being noisy, Kise…” ignoring his complaints, I landed another kiss on him to seal his words away; turning his moans into muffled cries. As we were sucking on each other’s tongue, I slowly slid my hand down, tracing the line of his chest then to his stomach…and eventually to the lower part of his waist. Kise’s eyes went wide when I teasingly grabbed at the hardened member underneath and he was so surprised he nearly bit my tongue. However, before he could pull away again I deepened our kiss to block his escape, and at the same time shoved my hand into his underwear.

“Mmm! Mmnn!!”

His legs started kicking on the bed sheet as he struggled, but such measure only served to make his pants and underwear slipped off more easily. I could feel his hips shaking when I slowly took his dick out and when I began to rub on it, he pulled his head back as he let out a cry.

“Ah! Ah! A-Aomine-cchi, not there— Ah!“

“Why? You’re already dripping before I touch it anyway.”

“Y…You’re horrib— Nnn!”

Before he could finish his words, I deliberately pressed on the tip and all of his struggles fade away in an instant. He ended up clutching onto me again while pressing his face against my shoulder, though it didn’t help him to muffle his cries. I kept rubbing him with my hand, caressing all of his pleasure spots without missing even one. Yeah… Even though it had been a long time, it seemed that my body still remembered his very well.

“Enough…Aomine-cchi… I can’t…anymore…”

Between his pants, Kise grabbed a hold of my arm, but his shaking fingers were far from capable to stop me. Even from my sense of touch alone, I could tell that he was already at his limit so I put in a little more strength on my grip and not long afterwards his hips buckled as he reached climax.

Both of us fell into silence for a moment. All of a sudden, I felt a sting of pain on my arm and when I looked at it, there were several red lines on my skin.

“Ah, about that…sorry…” with his chest still rising and falling, he muttered an apology with a small voice, but I responded by throwing him a smirk.

“I guess it really feels that good, huh? You’re even scratching at my arm.”

“I-It’s not like that!”

His cheeks flushed red as he turned his face away. But still, those pretty eyes glistening with tears and his bare skin stained with that white liquid spreading on his stomach were just too much. Even though I tried to put up a cool face, the moment I laid my eyes on his face, it felt as if all reasons simply left me all at once.

_Ah, this is bad…_

I pulled his pants and underwear off, and with my other hand still dripping from his cum, I traced the lines of his inner thigh until I found the small opening in the backside. His body twitched and squirmed as he stifled a moan when I carefully pushed a finger in, but at that moment, I noticed that something was not right.

“…Kise, have you done it with someone else recently?”

He froze like a statue when he heard my question; his eyes shifting aside to avoid meeting mine. All of a sudden, a wave of rage began to take place in my heart.

“Answer me, Kise,” I said once again, putting another finger in which of course slid in easily. He let out a small gasp, but even so he still refused to answer. Feeling both anxious and pissed, I began moving my fingers inside, roaming to find his pleasure spot with rough thrusts. “Kise, tell me. Have you done it with someone else?”

Even though I was no longer being very gentle, his body accepted two and then three fingers easily. My irritation grew. It wasn’t as tight as it should be, so there was no way he left it alone all these past six months. In fact, someone should’ve done something here recently for his body to be in this condition.

“……y…self…”

“What did you say?” I stared at him so intently as if I was about to drill a hole through him with glares alone. He looked at me in hesitation; his lips half opened like he was pondering whether to say it or not. Finally my patience ran out. “What did you say just now, Kise?!”

“I said I did it myself! What else would I be doing here when waiting for you all alone?!”

As soon as he blurted it out, he immediately buried his face on the pillow and started sobbing. I felt a pang of guilt for forcing him to say it, but a moment later a realized that he wasn’t crying out of sadness. The side of his face and all the way to his ears was bright red. What other reason could it be for that reaction aside of embarrassment?

_Ah, damn… This is really bad…_

I gulped hard once. Slowly, I pulled out my fingers and shifted up a bit, only enough for my face to be close enough to whisper into his ear.

“Kise… I’m going in…okay?"

His shoulders shivered as I said that to him. Without waiting for an answer, I slightly retreated back and removed my top. At that time I hadn’t realized Kise was looking at me with such an indescribable look on his face, so I went ahead and positioned myself on top of him between his legs. His face went bright red when he saw what I was about to do, but such reaction only aroused me even more that in the next second, I spread his legs apart and pushed into him.

“A-Ah! Ah! Aomine-cchi!!”

“…Grrgh…”

Even though he was mentally prepared, it appeared that his body was still caught off guard. Immediately after I went in, his insides were clenching tight around me that I couldn’t help but let out a groan.

“Kise… Kise, relax,” I caressed the side of his face, “Breath slowly, okay? Otherwise, I wouldn’t last long either.”

He couldn’t bring himself to answer aside of making several small nods with his eyes shut tight. The sound of his breaths reverberated into my ears as I kissed his forehead, stroking his hair while I waited for him to get used to it. When I wiped the traces of tears on his cheek, he opened his eyes and quietly stared at me.

“…What is it?” I asked him. He didn’t answer, but afterwards I felt his fingers tracing the surface of my left shoulder and in the next second, he brought himself up, kissing the scar perpetually embedded on it while a drop of tear once again dripped down from his eyes.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered in a small voice, “I’m so sorry…”

He buried his face on my shoulder, trying to hide the sound of his cries. When I saw his quivering shoulders, I couldn’t help but held him close to me, stroking the back of his head while I kissed those golden threads.

“It’s alright now. It’s alright,” I told him, but even so he still repeated his apologies again and again. Meanwhile, I could feel his body beginning to adjust to mine. Despite his virtually docile appearance on the outside, his inner sides were twitching as though responding to me. “…Really, you… Just how cute can you be? I won’t be held responsible for what happens next.”

“…Eh?” he looked at me in confusion, but I was far too eager to mess him up all over that I started moving without giving him even a sign. “W-Wait, Aomine-cchi, I’m not— Hah! Ah!”

He arched his back, pushing his chest up whenever I slammed into him. With my mind almost going blank in the midst of reverberating wet sounds and skins slapping against each other in that room, I lifted one of his leg on my shoulder, kissing the inner side of his flawlessly white thigh while gazing down at him who was biting on the pillow to muffle his cries.

“Kise… Don’t do that…” my hand traced on his lips and eventually separated his mouth from the pillow as I slowly slid my fingers in, “I want to hear your voice…”

“Nnn, mmm— Uwah! Ah, hah, A-Aomine-cchi—“

“Yeah, just like that… Let me hear your voice…”

A drop of sweat streamed down the side of my face and dripped down from my chin. I could feel my entire body burning…and underneath me was him, squirming and arching his back as he cried in pleasure when I hit his sensitive spot inside. Yeah, I still remembered everything. All of the places he liked, on his neck, his nipples, his dick and even his inside, I could easily find them and made him quivered all over. Over the times when we were together, I came to understand his body so much that he didn’t even have to tell me what to do.

_If only…I could also come to understand his heart…_

My chest felt tight. Right now he was clinging onto me, crying while I kept slamming into him in desperation. But what of tomorrow? And the next day after tomorrow and the days to come afterwards? Would this really be the last time for me to be able to hold him like this? Would this really be the last time we could be together? What was he about to tell me if I could find him in that pier next week? If he was about to say goodbye for real…what should I do then?

“......-cchi… Ao…mine-cchi…”

As if being pulled back from a dream, I regained my focus and in front of me was the sight of him caressing the side of my face. Between his uneven breaths, between his cries and gasps, he tried to wrap his arms around my back while gazing into my face with teary eyes.

“Aomine…-cchi… Love you… I love you… I really…really…love you so much… I’m sorry…”

The words he whispered were the last straw. I completely lost my mind and in my desperation I thrust hard into him, stroking roughly on his already stiffening dick that he cried out as he reached climax. He curled his toes, clawing on my back with his insides clamping tight around me that I finally came, as well. In the room that was previously filled with his moans and the sound of our skins slapping against each other, all that was left now was the sound of our uneven breaths after we both found release.

Whether it was due to the relief or the piling exhaustion for the past three days, I didn’t know, but immediately afterwards I passed out there, just like that. And in my dreams I could feel him pulling me into his arms, gently kissing the scar on my left shoulder. With a soft voice, he once again muttered an apology while holding my hands, but after that his presence faded. I could no longer smell his scent; I could no longer hear his voice. The only thing left was the warm sensation on my shoulder where his lips touched.

And when I woke up on the next day, in my hands I was holding the only spare key to my apartment, the one I gave to him when he first moved in with me. Despite still drowning in sleepiness, the moment I laid my eyes on the small metal object I could only come up with one thing.

_…Kise, are you really never coming back?_


	4. Chapter 4

If one were to measure all the choices in the world, perhaps one of the heaviest man should ever make was whether to face the truth or to keep living in delusion. It was only a simple matter of choosing one between two roads, but the consequence lying in wait at the end of each way could be fulfillment or regret. Of course, most of the times it would be easier to delude oneself since the truth was often far too painful to bear. Some people even said if we kept believing in lies as truth, eventually they would become the truth, as well.

“…- _chan_ …”

I had been asking the same question to myself for these past six months. Should I keep pretending that this delusion was true or should I delve further until I saw the truth with my own eyes? Over and over again, I thought and thought about it but never found any answer. I felt so afraid of my belief to be betrayed. I felt like my ability to judge was clouded. This was the first time my mind was so muddled that I couldn’t determine which one was right and which one was wrong.

But no more.

“ _Dai-chan!”_

Satsuki’s voice burst through the speaker of the ear-set I was wearing as though trying to slap me awake. My ear drum were buzzing; I didn’t find that particularly amusing as I wasn’t asleep in the very least, but before I could put my complaints into words, she already started to blabber her mouth off as usual.

_“Dai-chan, are you listening to me? Why didn’t you answer my call? Is your ear-set broken?”_

“Be quiet, Satsuki. You’re hurting my ears,” I clicked my tongue at her nonstop babbles.

 _“It’s your fault for not answering, even if I’ve called you many times already,”_ she replied in a pouting voice that I could imagine her puckering those lips into an ugly mug. However, it was before long that the tone of her voice changed completely. _“…Dai-chan, are you okay?”_

Such questioning and worried words were no longer unfamiliar to me. I had lost count of how many times I’d heard this concerned tone of hers ever since we were both tiny brats, and I wondered why she hadn’t gotten tired of getting dismissed repeatedly whenever she said something like that.

“Aren’t you noisy? If I’m not, I wouldn’t be standing here right now,” once again I clicked my tongue, “Aren’t I the one who first told you guys about those criminals’ plan in the first place?”

_“Well, that’s true, but…”_

There were doubts hanging heavily in the way she said it. I didn’t have to be a psychic to know what was going on in that head of hers and I could already imagine what she was about to say after this.

“Look, Satsuki…” I let out a long sigh, “If I’m not determined to do this, I would never have told you guys anything about it. Heck, I might’ve been a lump of flesh right now in the morgue, waiting for you guys to do your autopsy on me along with that guy. But I’m here right now, aren’t I? Isn’t that enough of a proof?”

 _“…You’re right…”_ with her voice beginning to lighten up, she answered in agreement despite the brief pause. She let out a small laugh afterwards and continued in an apologetic tone. _“I’m sorry, Dai-chan. I guess I’m just overthinking it. I’m glad that you’re here with us…”_

There was nothing I could say to that…or rather, there was no need for me to say anything. The harbor was already visible up ahead and somewhere inside, Kise was waiting for me. Strangely enough, this time I didn’t feel any sort of impatience, let alone anxiety. I was as eager as ever to find him, but at the same time I felt calm. “ _No matter for what reason, accomplishing this mission must come first_ ”, I thought, because otherwise there wouldn’t be any point in him giving me a second chance. The others might think that he had some sort of ulterior motive in mind when he revealed this plan to me, but my guts said he didn’t.

So with this thought in mind, I took my first step in the past six months towards the place where it all happened that night.

Yeah… I finally returned.

_“Aomine. Aomine, where is your position right now?”_

Replacing Satsuki’s, the evil glasses’ voice now called me through the ear-set. The harbor had several entrances on different sides and according to the plan, we agreed to approach the target from multiple directions in order to limit their options of escape. At this moment, this guy and his squad must already arrive at their designated position.

“About 20 meter to _Alpha_ ,” I replied briefly, mentioning the code for the back entrance where I was assigned to, “Nothing suspicious so far.”

 _“I see. I am already at Delta with the first squad. The others should arrive shortly, as well,”_ said him through the ear-set, followed by a light chuckle, _“But still… I’m honestly very concerned since you insist on taking the back door by yourself. Are you really going to be alright, Aomine?”_

“If you don’t actually mean it, you shouldn’t say anything.”

 _“That’s mean. Am I not allowed to worry over my own subordinate?”_ once again, he replied with a chuckle in that Kansai dialect of his, _“I know you work better when you’re alone, but don’t you think they would expect interruptions to come from the back entrance and tighten their guards in that area particularly?”_

“Then one person would be better for the job,” I said while leaping over a short fence after crossing the street, “They would easily notice an entire squad even before you get there.”

_“You do have a point. Well then… We’ll leave Alpha to you. Good luck.”_

The call was cut. For the time being, all I heard from the small device stuck in my ear were the others confirming positions with Satsuki acting as the navigator from a control unit parked further away from the harbor. They all seemed to have arrived at the designated positions, so it wouldn’t be long until the mission was officially launched.

But no matter. In the first place, it wouldn’t apply to me and even if it did, they should’ve known that I wasn’t going to follow it to every little detail.

“Satsuki, is the access to the cargo area still the same as before?” I asked her, pressing my back against the wall right next to the gate of the harbor’s back entrance. Due to the confidentiality of the plan, we didn’t inform anyone, not even the management of the harbor, that we were about to raid this place tonight. Surely, there would be securities and other employees wandering inside and it couldn’t be any less chaotic when the squads entered from all directions. Plus, I didn’t know how many of them actually cooperated with the smugglers or were under influence of the yakuza, so probably it would be best to treat everyone as enemies.

_“There is no change made to the layout of the harbor these past six months, so it should remain the same.”_

“Great. Then, I’m off.”

_“Off? What do you— D-Dai-chan, what are you doing?! We haven’t started yet!”_

Ignoring her calls, I slipped through the back gate and easily passed through a small security post where a guard was sleeping soundly on his chair. I could hear the others, especially that noisy guy Wakamatsu, shouting through the ear-set and told me to return to my first post that I decided to lower the volume to minimum in order to avoid distraction. In front of me was the warehouse area, and as I hid behind one of the buildings, I could see several people wandering at the other side.

_Must be the harbor staffs…or at least they look like harbor staffs._

There were about five people out there; all males and were wearing the same uniform. It seemed that they were those working the night shift and I doubted they had relations to the yakuza, let alone knowing about the smuggling plan. However, I had my hunch said otherwise, even though I had no proof of it.

“Excuse me,” I left my hiding place and casually approached the two guys standing closest to the warehouse. Both turned at me almost at the same time, obviously surprised, and it didn’t take long for the other three guys nearby to notice my arrival, as well. Nevertheless, I continued my original intention. “I apologize for the sudden visit. I am a detective from the Criminal Investigation Bureau. If you don’t mind, may I please ask—“

I ducked quickly and shifted aside. A slashing sound echoed in my right ear and from the corner of my eyes, I could see a thin metal object cutting through empty air where my head previously was. Almost immediately, the two guys I was talking to just now stepped up towards me, raising their fists in a follow-up to the failed surprise attack their fellow tried behind my back.

“Oi, oi, I only want to ask you guys for directions…” I clicked my tongue while avoiding their punches, “I guess you leave me with no choice. Don’t blame me if you lose a tooth or two.”

With that said, I launched a full roundhouse kick to one of them, right on the face. As soon as my foot landed back on the ground, I blocked the attack from the second guy, avoiding another slash from the man with the knife and socked him in the guts that he doubled over, dropping his weapon which I quickly kicked away as far as possible. This left only one of them to be taken care of and since he was alone, I could easily put him down with a hit on his nape, hard enough to have him unconscious for awhile without harming his life. However, it was at that moment I saw the other two guys nearby were running towards us; both of them bringing some sort of metal object like a club.

_Man… This could be bad._

At the same time, I noticed someone calling my name through the ear-set. I raised the volume a bit more, still having my eyes fixed on the two guys coming, and soon afterwards Ryou’s voice burst through the speaker.

_“Aomine-san!”_

“Ah? What is it, Ryou? I’m really busy over here,” I told him bluntly. But even without his explanation, I could already guess more or less the situation he was in. “Say, aren’t those gunshots I hear from your side?”

_“Yes! Wakamatsu-san and I are taking the Beta route. The yakuza prepared a group of gunmen over here, just like what Imayoshi-san’s informant said.”_

“…Is that so?”

As I said this, the two guys eventually reached my place and swung theirs clubs towards me. Looking at it up close, those things were pretty long and thick. Certainly, my skull would be instantly crushed if they beat me up with those.

“Ryou, how long will it take you to reach the target?” I asked him through the ear-set. One of the clubs swung right next to my head and when I tried to dodge, the other nearly hit me on the chest.

 _“I’m sorry but I can't say for sure!”_ he replied in a voice that sounded more like a yell due to the blaring gunshots around him, _“But as I understand, Susa-san’s team would be there in five minutes.”_

If I managed to get rid of these guys, I would be there in less than five since my starting point was closest to the target, but that was exactly the problem. The long range of the clubs made it difficult to get close to them and I really didn’t want to use my gun unless it was an emergency.

At that moment, one of them swung his weapon towards me and I quickly ducked down. The metal club smacked a wooden box piled up nearby instead and destroyed it into nothing more than a lump of broken wood pieces in a mere second. As I rolled away to avoid the bursting splinters, an idea popped up in my head.

_That’s right. I could do that._

I rolled aside once again, barely avoiding the other guy to smash me in the ribs with his club. At that moment, I saw the guy who just destroyed the wooden box preparing to swing his weapon again so without wasting any second, I immediately stood up, launched myself to his backside and kicked him real hard the moment he lifted the metal club. In the blink of an eye, he lost his balance and ended up tumbling forward, hitting the head of his friend in the process.

“Sorry, guys. Now go get some sleep,” I elbowed him hard in the face while he was still stunned by what he just did.

The two of them were now lying motionless on the ground, along with three others who attacked me previously. Now that I’d taken care of this, I took a brief look around to check my surroundings. There didn’t seem to be anymore suspicious people lurking around for the time being and from where I stood, I could already see the pier where the smuggling was about to take place in 30 more minutes, just like what happened half a year ago.

_…Finally…_

I took a step forward, and another one, and another one. On and on until my body started running full speed towards the pier standing in front of me. _I would end everything tonight_ , a thought rose into my mind. This entire smuggling case, the yakuza, and him… I wouldn’t let even one single problem left unsolved. Tonight, everything must come to an end.

_Just you wait, Kise. I’ll find you. I will come and find you for sure. And this time, I will take you home with me._

I touched the small object tucked safely in my vest pocket. However, at that moment a voice called my name through the ear-set.

_“Aomine.”_

It was Imayoshi.

“What is it?” I asked him without slowing down. Only a bit more and I would reach that pier. There were a lot of big containers around, so it was only a matter of finding one suitable for hiding.

_“Aomine, turn back now.”_

“Huh? Are you stupid? The target’s right in front of—“

_“Turn back now. This is an order.”_

I stopped in my tracks. He didn’t usually use those words when speaking to me, even when I totally ignored his instructions, and as though he had just read through my mind, he spoke again through the speaker.

 _“It was a trap,”_ he said, _“We were made to dispatch our squads here while they searched for our control unit. Everyone, including Momoi, has been taken hostage right now.”_

Right after he said this, a blow struck me hard on the head. My sight began to blur; the ear-set falling to the ground and bounced away. As I fell crashing to the hard concrete, the last thing I saw was the sight of the pier a little bit further away, but no matter how hard I wished to reach that place, darkness took my consciousness away and the sight disappeared from my eyes.

* * *

_“Aomine-cchi is…a detective?”_

_“Yeah. Is something wrong with that?”_

_“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”_

_“…Your face says otherwise, though.”_

_“No, no, it’s not like that. I was just thinking, that’s all.”_

_“And? What were you thinking just now?”_

_“I thought… If Aomine-cchi is a detective, then you will protect me if I’m ever in danger, right?”_

My head was throbbing. On the side of my face, I could feel something wet trickling down occasionally. When I first opened my eyes I couldn’t help but wonder what it was, but all of my thoughts quickly gather all at once the moment a sharp pain ran through my head when I attempted to lift my face.

_Dammit, they got me!_

I cursed silently under my breath, noticing that both of my hands were bound behind my back. My gun and ear-set were also taken. Plus, I was gagged. The place I was in seemed like a warehouse although it didn’t have a lot of lights, but fortunately enough, after my eyes had gotten more used to the dim surroundings I could get a better view of what was around me.

And I was stunned.

_…?! Kise!_

Without thinking about anything else, I jumped up and ran to his side. It was only that moment I noticed whoever it was who brought me here was apparently nice enough not to tie my legs, but even that relief flashed by in an instant the moment I had a closer look on the blond guy lying there on the floor, half surrounded by piles of boxes and packages. On his skins were countless bruises; cuts deep and shallow drawing blood out of his body. Parts of his clothes were torn apart and his hair was a complete mess. Just like me, he was bound and gagged even though he was already in such condition.

Had my mouth not been plugged shut like this, probably I would’ve screamed his name out. It was a struggle to keep my cool down and I was so frustrated that I couldn’t even call out to him. Impatiently, I squirmed both of my wrists in hope it would loosen the knot, while at the same time my eyes were frantically looking around for anything I could use to cut the rope. There was a broken, unused metal container sitting in the corner which opened side looked sharp enough to cut something with a little effort, so I ran there and began to grind the rope binding my hands against the container’s side. Eventually, I managed to break free and without wasting another second, I tore off the gag on my mouth and returned to his side.

“Kise. Kise, wake up!”

His eyes remained closed even after I untied him and lightly slapped his cheek repeatedly, although I did feel much better after knowing that he was still alive. He was warm, and if I were to look closely, it wouldn’t be hard to notice his faint breaths. But still, it just meant that his injuries were bad enough to make him unconscious. It might turn out real bad if he didn’t get help as soon as possible.

_And yet we’re stuck here in this goddamn warehouse._

I clicked my tongue and slammed my fist to the floor. It was at that moment I heard noises coming from outside and I couldn’t help but try to look for a way to find out what was going on out there. On the wall next to where we were was an opened window, about three meters above the ground, and right below were piles of boxes. It didn’t take me even ten seconds to reach the top-most box and carefully peeked through the opening, but the moment I laid my eyes on what was happening out there, I felt as though every single cell in my body was frozen for a second.

Anchored at the pier was a large cargo ship, and around it were at least 50 people. About ten of them were loading dozens of boxes into the ship with a small group of five men in nice clothes were watching the progress from the sideline. Meanwhile, the rest of them were divided into two groups; one equipped with firearms while the others were made to stay still under surveillance of the armed. This second group, however, were more than familiar to me. If anything, we were supposed to stop these guys together from loading those boxes into the ship.

_What the hell?! They got the entire team?!_

Everyone was all there. Even Satsuki and the other guys in the control unit who were supposed to back us up from a considerable distance were also caught. With those guys pointing their guns at them, not even that Imayoshi could move a muscle lest there would be victims from our side. They were left with no choice but to submit, unless an opportunity presented itself to turn the tides.

“……-cchi…”

A weak voice called out to me. At first, I thought I was just hearing things and remained fixated on the situation outside. However, when the same voice called my name once again, I finally came to it and involuntarily turned towards the direction of the source.

“…-cchi… Ao…mine-cchi…”

I jumped down the pile of boxes and ran towards him. Still lying on the cold floor without moving a finger, only his eyes were looking at me with the lids half-closed; his lips chanting my names like a spell until I finally reached his side.

“Kise! Kise, you okay?” I brushed the side of his face, returning his call in order to keep his consciousness from drifting away once again, “What happened?”

“Sorry… Aomine-cchi, I’m sorry…”

“What happened?” I repeated my question, “What’s actually going on? And more importantly, why are you in this state?”

“They…found out…” his small voices whispered through his bleeding lips, “They knew…that I revealed the smuggling plan to you.”

In the mafia’s world, no matter where it was, punishment was dire particularly for traitors. It might’ve been better to be executed on the spot rather than going through their unimaginable tortures. Since Kise was with them, there was no way he didn’t know about what kind of punishment they would impose on him for his betrayal.

_Then why are you still doing this?_

I was about to ask him that, but right before I uttered those words, I decided to hold myself back. He already went that far despite knowing very well what kind of risk waiting for him. He was determined enough to do that, and the least I could do was not to question his decision. Plus, right now I couldn’t think only for my personal problems. The entire team had been captured by the enemies and I myself had lost ways to contact them, not to mention that I had been stripped completely off my weapons.

However, the mission had not been aborted. If anything, now was the only time I could act using whatever methods I found suitable without having to consult with anyone beforehand. Any kind of questions I had for Kise could wait until the both of us had gotten out of this situation.

“…Say, Kise… Do you think you can move?” I asked him. He looked at me for a moment before letting out a small laugh.

“I…don’t know. I haven’t tried yet…” a smile was drawn on his beaten face, “But I think…it should be okay…maybe…”

He grimaced as he squirmed on the floor. Just by looking, I could already imagine how much pain he was feeling right now and even with my support, it took awhile until he could stand properly on his own two feet. Well, at least it didn’t seem like he had any broken bones. For now, that was good enough.

“We need something to defend ourselves,” I said while looking around, “But on second thought, maybe it would be best if we try to get out of here first.”

My sight was locked on the only door at the other end of the warehouse. It was shut tight, but there might be a way to open it if we looked hard enough. However, as though he was capable of reading my mind, Kise stopped me just when I was about to take my first step.

“No, wait,” he said, wiping the traces of blood from his mouth, “Let’s not go that way, Aomine-cchi.”

“It’s the only way out,” I replied, “We couldn’t possibly jump from that window since all of them are there. The door’s the only choice…unless you’re saying they set up some boobie trap on it.”

Kise remained silent, but the way he shifted his gaze aside was more than enough of a confirmation for me. Well, in the first place it was pretty weird to only tie my hands up since they should’ve known it wouldn’t be that hard for me to break free. It wasn’t a surprise to know if they had other things up their sleeves.

“…It’s a punishment…for me,” he muttered under his breath, “They said they would keep the both of us here so we could spend our ‘last time’ together while they went ahead with the smuggling. And after they were done, they said they would kill you in front of my eyes. Only after that would they proceed with my death sentence.”

“Well, it would only become a punishment if we fail to escape before they finish loading all of the packages into the ship,” I told him casually, “You said the door is equipped with a boobie trap, right? How exactly does it work?”

“…? I don’t…know exactly. I only heard them talking that there is some sort of explosive that would blow up if we try to open the door from inside,” Kise replied despite the questioning look in his face, “But what good will it do to us even if you know that now?”

“Plenty. So the bomb will only blow up if we open it from inside, right? Now listen here and do as I say…”

I whispered some instructions to him and not long afterwards, we were already hiding behind the pile of boxes a bit further away from the door; Kise on the right and I on the left. We both threw a medium-sized scrap of metal plate towards the door, deliberately making such a loud noise when the two objects slammed against it in order to alert the guards outside. And just as I expected, it didn’t take long for the door to slowly swing open.

Two men carefully stepped into the warehouse; each bringing a rifle. Their eyes were wary as they looked around and of course, the both of them were startled when they realized that neither me nor Kise were visible in sight.

“Where did they go?! Don’t tell me they’ve escaped!” said one of them.

“Idiot, of course not. We’ve been guarding the only exit all the time,” the other snorted as he scolded his fellow, “They must be hiding somewhere in here. Find them.”

They came further in, and when I felt the moment was right, I gave a signal to Kise. He made a small nod before returning his stare towards the two guys. And the next second, he let himself fell to the floor with a _thud_ to surprise the guards.

“Who’s tha— Oh, it’s him,” one of them said. Just as planned, they both turned towards Kise and approached him, examining his condition while talking between themselves. I waited a bit until they had their backs facing me, and then I crept up behind them, bringing along a wooden club and smashed them in the head one after the other.

“Uagh!!”

“Argh!!”

They both fell to the ground, hitting the dirty floor with a firm slam. As soon after the two guys were knocked out, Kise raised from his fake state of unconsciousness and looked at the unmoving bodies before him.

“…Aomine-cchi, did you kill them?”

“No way, idiot. I’m never gonna kill people,” I retorted, “They’ll be up and kicking soon, so let’s tie them down quickly.”

In addition to that, we also snatched their rifles, which were still full with ammos, thankfully. Now we finally had a weapon to defend ourselves, but the problem was how we could free Satsuki and the others while stopping the smuggling at the same time with only the two of us. We could just find a good hiding place and shoot them down one by one, but as long as they weren’t completely incapacitated, there was a possibility that those guys would still pose a lot of troubles even when injured.

“Then isn’t it easier to shut them down for real? That way, we would have less and less troubles to deal with,” Kise suggested with a completely straight face. It was as if he didn’t realize the meaning of his words, but of course there was no way he didn’t know, which was why I almost couldn’t believe him for saying such a thing so lightly.

“I told you, Kise, I’m never gonna kill people,” I replied, looking straight at his eyes. Those golden spheres didn’t waver, and I had known him well to understand it as a sign that he really meant to do it. “And that also applies to you. I don’t want you to kill people, even if they’re a bunch of criminals.”

“But I have,” still with the same firm tone, he returned my words easily. A thin smile was painted on his face as he looked at me. “Even before I met you, Aomine-cchi, I have taken the lives of many people, criminals or not. I am part of the yakuza after all.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t expect to hear such an answer. When I decided to come here, I thought I had prepared myself to see his true self, but listening to him saying those words directly still sent a piercing pain to my heart. There was nothing I could say to that. Right now, the only option I had left was to completely accept the truth that he was in fact no different than all of those criminals I’d hunted and arrested since the moment I chose this line of work.

“……I see…” trying not to meet his eyes, I shifted my gaze aside, “I guess…that’s how it is then.”

Even if I didn’t see his face, I could feel that he was smiling at me, smiling at the answer I gave to him as though trying to tell me not to trouble myself with his situation. He lightly tugged at my clothes, signaling that we moved on with what we were about to do, and just by looking at him I knew that he was asking me to let him do it for real.

“Let’s go?” he asked casually, “Don’t worry about me, Aomine-cchi. My hand is already dirty in the first place. One or ten more people wouldn’t make any difference.”

And with that, the two of us walked out of the warehouse, rifles in hand. We took a roundabout way to avoid being spotted by the yakuza members gathering at the pier, and when we were sure our current position was in their blind spot, Kise swiftly climbed to the top of a large container to get a comfortable place where he could shoot with ease. With a signal, he asked me who he should put down first, in which I responded by pointing at the guys guarding the captured squads.

And so he took aim, sending a loud and clear _bang_ piercing through the silence of night.

The guard who was standing in front of Imayoshi fell down. Even from here, I could see blood bursting out of his head as his body slammed hard against the concrete. It was literally a clear head shot and I couldn’t help but wonder if Kise had always had this much accuracy.

_I thought Ryou’s the only one here who could shoot so well from afar._

But it didn’t stop there. Even before all the guys over there had time to react, Kise already aimed and shot at the other guy standing near the back row. It was only after that second shot that the yakuza broke into a clamor. The armed guys frantically tried to find the location of the sniper while the men in nice clothes began to panic, torn between two choices of running for their lives or stayed to ensure the loading process would be quickened. Now that they started to scatter around, this was a good chance for me to butt in.

I shot at the legs of the armed guy standing closest to me. As he fell tumbling to the ground, I quickly moved closer, hiding behind one container to the other until I finally got close enough to the entire gang. The guy I just shot were still rolling there right where he fell, so I sneaked towards him and knocked him out before taking away his rifle. Now the back side of the hostages’ row was finally cleared, and since most of us were wearing the same uniform, it would be difficult for the yakuza to notice that I had quietly slipped into the groups, especially because they were currently still in disarray.

“Dai-cha—“

“Sssh! Quiet, Satsuki!” I hissed at her the moment she was about to utter my name. The other guys in the team almost spontaneously turned at me all at once, but fortunately they were quick to catch my signal and returned to their original position before any of the yakuza noticed my presence. The first person I freed was Ryou, and as soon as his bound came loose, I handed him the rifle I snatched from the guy I shot.

“Help me free, everyone. But do it quietly,” I whispered an instruction to him, “Once we have enough people to fight back, you do your job as usual.”

The look on his face told me that he was about to bow down 900 and answered in a loud and clear “Yes, Sir!” as usual, but it appeared that this time his understanding of the situation won against his habit. There were around twenty of us, so untying each and every single person was sure to take a long time. While Kise kept shooting at them, I had wished that the yakuza wouldn’t notice it until we had freed everyone, but it seemed that it simply wasn’t possible for such a bold plan to go smoothly.

“Hey, you there! What are you doing?!”

_Shit. They saw us._

At the very same time, Susa’s hands were freed and he quickly stood, knocking out the man who saw us with a blow on the face using his elbow. We escaped the risk of getting shot by that guy, but through that action alone, we alerted the entire pier of our plan. It didn’t take even five second for the rest of the armed guards to point their guns at us and once again we were thrown into a situation where moving even a finger could cost us our lives.

But we weren’t alone.

A deafening boom suddenly blasted through our eardrums. The sudden force caused by the unknown explosion was strong enough to make every single person standing on that pier to be knocked out their feet, and when I lifted my face, the way between the pier and the ship had been blocked completely by fires and smokes. Indeed, among the compositions of the drug AS-1220 was a flammable material. Kise must’ve known this and fired his bullet at the pile of unloaded packages sitting on the way to the ship. Nevertheless, such unexpected turnout of event dumbfounded both the yakuza and us, but it was at that moment Imayoshi’s voice rang clear.

“Now!” he shouted, and the previously incapacitated squad rose all at once, resuming the mission despite the complete change in the original plan. Gunshots echoed from all directions; cries and screams resounded throughout the pier as an all-out brawl was unavoidable. Holding the rifle I gave him before, Ryou found himself a good shooting spot and began to take down the yakuza one by one. Of course, he didn’t kill them as Kise did, but at least now we were on even position with them.

“Dai-chan!” Satsuki called out to me from among the fighting men. As the only woman in the group, it was totally dangerous for her to get caught in this. She even almost got hit when she tried to run towards me and despite knowing full well the risks that came with her decision of choosing this job, she looked mighty scared right now that she was almost shaking. “Dai-chan, you’re safe!”

“Well, of course. Who do you think I am?” I snorted at her. From the look in her eyes, she was ready to burst out crying at any moment, but as much as I felt bad for her, now was not the right time for that. And I was sure she knew this, as well. “Satsuki, could you do me a favor?”

“Calling for reinforcement, right?” she replied quickly as though capable of reading my mind, “I know. Once I get out of the harbor, it would be easy to call for backup.”

“Right. We’ll hold them down here, so be sure to do it quick,” I told her. Afterwards, I looked at Ryou who had just shot down perhaps the third man in a row. His presence here was important, but we already more or less grabbed a hold of the situation. And so I yelled at him. “Ryou, go with Satsuki! Make sure she comes back here in once piece!”

Perhaps startled by the sudden command, he almost dropped his gun, but quickly responded in a loud and clear “Yes, Sir!”. Before leaving with him, Satsuki once again glared intently at me in the eyes while grabbing my clothes.

“Dai-chan, you must not do reckless things, you hear me?”

And with that, she ran off with Ryou as a bodyguard.

Sending the only guy with sniping skill would be a big disadvantage for us, I realized this very well. Even now, there were already several victims on our side; some were shot, some were stabbed, some were beaten. Although I hadn’t seen anyone of us having fatal injuries, the remaining members of the yakuza were fully armed, either with guns or knives. I considered myself lucky for only suffering from light slash wounds.

But still, I couldn’t send her alone. It would be disastrous if she failed to call for reinforcement, or worse, caught once more as a hostage. Despite his looks, Ryou was pretty capable since he could eliminate the enemies before they even got to them. But more importantly…

_I couldn’t call myself a man if I send her to run off on her own in this kind of place._

The fires kept raging, heightening the temperature of the entire place while at the same time, it started to get difficult to breath due to all the smokes. Nevertheless, I returned and plunged myself into the brawl once again, making sure that we wouldn’t lose the opportunity to shut these guys down after all this time. However, as I fought the remaining men, a familiar accented voice reached my ears.

“Aah, so you’re the one giving orders now, Aomine?” all of a sudden, Imayoshi who had been leading the squad fighting the yakuza guys commented on my actions when we incidentally encountered each other, “Not that I’m going to complain though. It is a good decision and you ARE the one who turns the tide.”

“…What do you want?” obviously filled with suspicion, I returned his question. There was no way this guy would just talk to me about something so trivial without having any ulterior motive in mind.

“That’s really mean. I really am complementing you, you know?” he said with a disappointed look. However, it wasn’t until a second later that a thin smile was drawn on his face; his squinted eyes looking at me with a meaningful stare. “Well, I do have something to ask you, though.”

“What is it now? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?”

“Yes, but… Is it really okay for you to be loitering around here right now?” he asked calmly. It seemed that he noticed I didn’t get what he meant by that, so still wearing the same smile, he continued. “If you don’t go now, it might be too late.”

Even with that, I still didn’t understand what he was saying…until a sudden realization came crashing to me. I turned back and looked up at the top of a large container sitting there, and at that moment I felt like my heart stopped for a bit.

The blond hair that was supposed to be visible from here was no longer there.

* * *

From the distance I could hear the clamor at the pier dying down. Satsuki and Ryou must’ve managed to call on the reinforcement in time since I did hear the sound of sirens blaring to our directions awhile ago. Right now that place must be swarming with members of the force. It should be enough to prevent anyone from escaping. I could even see the cargo ship still sitting at the pier from here, so they should’ve successfully stopped the smuggling.

_So that leaves only one more problem to take care of…_

I had never been in this part of the harbor. Everything was quiet as a grave and the buildings, as well as the other equipment around here, were all worn down if not broken. It was when I accidentally came across the number of the dock that I remembered an article I read in the newspapers a few days ago. This was an older part of the harbor which would be torn down soon since it hadn’t been used anymore.

Which led me to another of question of why Kise would come to this abandoned part.

When I saw that he was no longer at the spot where he was supposed to be, I ran to that place and found out that the only thing he left was the rifle. I thought I had lost him once again, but it was at that moment I noticed several dark red spots staining the ground. It seemed that blood had dripped out of his wounds and even though the stains were small and faint, I could trace it along and eventually reached this part of the harbor.

“Kise!” I yelled his name. In response, all I could hear was my own voice echoing back to me throughout the empty place. I clicked my tongue and slammed my fist against the wall on my side. Dozens of questions began to surface in my head. Why did he run away? Why did he leave the pier? Where did he plan to go with all of those injuries? Was he trying to escape from me again? The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I felt. If I were to be honest, I gathered the determination and came this far by believing that I would finally hear the truth from himself, and more importantly, to bring him back with me. If I lost him here… If he slipped through my fingers once again…

“Don’t move.”

My body froze at that second. It was a very familiar voice and I didn’t even have to look back to know who was the owner. Even if I wanted to, I could clearly feel something was pressed against my back, a small yet powerful object that could blast a hole through my chest if he decided to pull the trigger. However, the voice then turned into a chuckle.

“Just kidding,” Kise lowered his gun as I looked back at him, “You totally fell for it, didn’t you, Aomine-cchi?”

“…Where did you get that?” ignoring his totally-not-funny-joke, I glared down at the small black gun on his hand. I was certain that when I found him in that warehouse, he didn’t have anything on him aside of those tattered clothes he was wearing.

“This? One of the guy I shot had this, so I took it from him as I left,” he replied casually, “Moreover, is everything okay over there? You look awful, Aomine-cchi.”

“…I thought you ran away again,” without beating around the bush I told him honestly, making him drew a thin smile as he answered to my remark.

“I’m not running away,” he said in a calm voice, slightly looking down at the gun on his hand, “I promised that I would tell you everything if you can find me, and I’m not planning on going back on my own words. It’s just that I feel that place isn’t suitable for our, let us say, _private talk_.”

He walked passed me, walking up a set of stairs to the second level of the abandoned dock. As I followed him closely, eventually we reached a spacious, completely opened place, probably used to be some sort of helipad. Kise continued walking to the very end of the area and right below him was no other than the sea itself. Waving as it was blown by the night wind, the golden strands of his hair stood in a perfect contrast with the pitch black background.

“So…” he turned to look at me, “What would you like to know, Aomine-cchi?”

“…Are you really one of them?”

There were actually so many questions I wanted to ask him. After that incident, I realized that since the beginning I never really knew anything about him. Perhaps I was too taken away by his pace, I didn’t know, but it was true that I never once thought of asking him about his past. Even when I did think of asking him something related to that, I was always reminded of the miserable face he showed when we first met that I always ended up brushing aside the intention to ask. Now that everything had come to this, I wanted to know the truth, more than anything else. And as if he could read my mind, Kise only smiled after hearing my question.

“If you’re putting it that way, then the answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’,” he replied, “Yes because for the past ten years I have been receiving orders to do all sorts of things from them. And No because I have never really become an official member. I’m not even tattooed, see?”

“Then why do you have to do what they told you?”

“I have…no other choice…” while lowering his gaze, Kise laughed bitterly, “My family couldn’t pay their debt to the boss, so I was made to work for them until the boss says our debt has been repaid. When I was a kid, the jobs only revolved around helping out at the main house and such. But as I grow up…”

I was waiting for him to continue, but Kise remained silent. As he averted his gaze, I noticed that his fingers were gripping tight at the tip of his own clothes. This…must be what he meant when he said his hands were already dirty.

“But still, you’re not one of them. You’re just doing what they told you to do because you couldn’t fight them back,” I told him. However, at my words Kise made a painful smile.

“I would’ve become one of them, Aomine-cchi,” he said in a small voice, “There have been so many times when I thought I would give up and let myself fall completely into the darkness of the underworld. If I’m going to spend the rest of my life murdering people and doing all kinds of crimes anyway, I might as well become one of them. All I have to do is to pledge my loyalty to the boss. I’m sure that’s what they want me to do since the beginning. But then… I met you…”

The golden spheres in his eyes met mine. I couldn’t describe the look he had in it through words, but while I was still struggling with myself to decipher what he was hiding behind that gaze, he already continued.

“I thought someone like me is the lowest kind of person. I hated myself, and sometimes I wished that I could just disappear from this world,” he said. There was a brief pause as he kept looking into my eyes, until he once again opened his lips with a soft voice. “…But you saved me…and gave me a place to live even. I had never met anyone who would treat me with such kindness, moreover because you were so sincere about it towards me who was a mere stranger. At that moment, it felt as if all thoughts in my mind vanished into thin air. I wanted to be with you; I wanted to live with you. Whenever we were together, I was always so happy that I couldn’t think of anything else. I forgot who I was, where I came from, and what I have done in the past. My mind was filled only with thoughts about you. Now that I think about it, perhaps I have already fallen in love with you since the first time we met.”

“…Then, Kise… Why did you return to their side?”

Finally, I found the perfect opportunity to ask him the question I’d been dying to know. Kise slightly lowered his gaze, drawing a thin smile with a pained look on his face.

“Because… It was just a delusion…the time we spent together that is,” he answered bitterly, “When they found me and forced me to return by taking my family as hostages, I realized that no matter how hard I tried to be a part of your kind, bright world… I was, am, and will always remain a mere criminal from the underground. If anything, my presence by your side will only make you as dirty as me.”

After saying this, he took a few steps forward, signaling that I opened my hands. And when I did, he put the small black gun he’d been holding on my palms.

“…What’s this for?” I asked him.

“An evidence to arrest me,” he replied calmly, “I have committed a lot of crimes in the past. It is time that I atone for my sins. I saw this gun was used to shoot one of your squad members during the fight. The forensic team only needs to match the ballistic marking. Furthermore, if my fingerprints are found on this gun, it should be enough of an evidence to arrest me officially.”

“…?! Don’t fuck with me, Kise! I didn’t come here so I could arrest you like this!” hearing his last words, the last bit of patience I had left in me flew out of the window. In my head I understood clearly what he had done and what people like him had to face to repent for their crimes. But my heart simply couldn’t accept it and brushed away all logics from my mind. “…I’m not giving you away to them. Not in a million years.”

“But, Aomine-cchi—“

“Don’t you remember, Kise?” I cut his words, “Back then, when you first found out that I’m working in the force, you asked me if I would protect you should you’re ever in danger. Don’t you still remember what my answer was?”

“…?!”

“That’s right,” with one hand I caressed the side of his face, “I told you…that even if I’m not a detective, I will still protect you no matter what.”

I could hear a small gasp from him as he stood there without moving; eyes went wide in surprise. A drop of tears rolled down the side of his face, and I could see how he bit his lips in order to hold back cries. He understood very well what I meant, I knew he did. However, I would never expect that his next reaction would totally catch me off-guard.

“Aomine-cchi really is very kind…” he smiled as he spoke in shaking voice, “I must be the most fortunate person in this world for having met you. If there is god, I would like to thank him that I was given a chance to know the bliss of having lived by your side, even though only for a short time. I was truly, very happy then. However, there is one thing that I absolutely cannot allow no matter what…”

He wiped the tears away with the back of his hands and looked straight at me.

“…You throwing yourself into the darkness for my sake.”

Before I could even open my mouth to answer, he swiftly snatched the gun away from my hands. With both hands gripping the handle, he pointed the small black hole right towards me.

“What are you—“

“If you won’t arrest me, then I will turn myself in,” he said firmly, “I will shoot you in the legs so you won’t be able to run after me. After that, I will go to your friends and tell them I’ve shot you. They would definitely take me away since I have the evidence clearly in my hands.”

I couldn’t believe how quick he could change himself. Not even a minute ago, his voice was shaking and he was on the brink of tears, but now he talked in such a determined voice without leaving any trace of his vulnerable self. I was at complete loss of words. All I could do was to stare at him in disbelief, but at the last moments, I saw his lips drawn into a bitter smile once again as he looked at me with a pained expression.

“I’m sorry, Aomine-cchi. I’m truly sorry…” he whispered, “I don’t expect to earn your forgiveness this time, but I’d rather have you hate me forever than to see you plunging yourself into my dirty world.”

“Kise—“

“I love you, Aomine-cchi. I really do. That’s why… I’m sorry…”

A loud bang pierced through the blowing night breeze. I had closed my eyes in reflex, but even after seconds had passed, I didn’t feel any pain on my body, not even in the slightest bit. However, as I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Kise dropping the gun he was holding before his body effortlessly fell into my arms. And then I realized…how blood had dripped down his body, creating a small red pool on the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

_***** A/N: I'm really sorry for the late update! This is the last chapter of the story, but I'm planning to write an Extra Chapter from Kise's part after this._ :)  
_Also, I am thinking of printing this book (with Cover Art and Illustrations) for upcoming events that I'm going to attend. I will update more information about this in my blog "akatsuki-shin.tumblr.com" when the time comes. ^^_

* * *

On the concrete of the abandoned helipad where I was standing was a dark red pool, dripping endlessly from the motionless body in my arms. His bright golden hair was brushing against my neck, and from the moment I caught his body, he hadn’t made even the slightest sound.

“…Kise…?”

His name escaped my lips. Rubbing the side of his face, I slowly went down to my knees as I tried to flip his body over so I could take a look at him. His head slid on my arm and leaned against me; his eyes remained close. On his right shoulder, close to his chest, was a hole in the size of a bullet with blood seeping out to the point that it was dying his tattered clothes completely red.

“KISE!”

The momentary silence surrounding me dissolved in a split second. I screamed out his name, I screamed in such a loud voice I thought I’d never be able to make. Ignoring the miserable state he was already in even before he was shot, I kept shaking his body with both hands, calling out to his name again and again without a care if my throat would go dry. Whether I had completely lost my sanity or not, I didn’t know. I was terrified; I was so terrified to imagine what would become of him that my mind refused to accept all logic and reasoning. I kept calling his name, again and again and again, but not a single reply ever came to me.

His eyes remained close. And the moment I lifted my face, a familiar person was standing there timidly; rifle in hand. I could not understand what had happened; my mind refused to process everything. Standing beside him was that guy in glasses whose expression I could not read, and the moment I realized the other two had stood right behind me, I was hit in the back of my neck.

As my sight darkened, the last thing I could feel was they took the motionless body away from my arms.

* * *

 

“Dai-chan. Dai-chan, wake up.”

A bubbly voice entered my ears as it kept calling out to me to no end. At the same time I felt someone shaking my body, but even so my eyes still refused to open. Eventually, I only woke up after that person slapped the back of my head with something that felt like a bunch of papers rolled up, and only after that I realized I had apparently dozed off on my desk at the office.

“Geez, I’m honestly amazed you can sleep so easily at work…” Satsuki pursed her lips as she stood there with both hands on her waist. On her hand was the thing she used to hit me just now, a rolled newspaper. “I thought Imayoshi-san already told you the report should be submitted before lunch time.”

“Be quiet, Satsuki. Why are you always so noisy in the morning?” I replied nonchalantly, letting out a big yawn while stretching out both of my arms, “Besides, why am I the only one who has to pull an all-nighter doing all the paperwork?”

“Because Imayoshi-san and everyone have done a lot of things to help you out. This is the least you can do to repay them,” she glared at me. And to her remark, for the first time in my life I had no words to retort back. The only thing I could do was to click my tongue and suck it up as I returned to face the computer screen in front of me. A half-done report was sitting there, waiting to be completed. But even as I resumed typing on the keyboard, I noticed that Satsuki hadn’t moved an inch from where she had been standing since she first hit me with the newspaper. If anything, her round pink eyes were staring right at me in silence.

“What do you want now?” I snorted at her, “I’m saying I’ll hand it over to you before lunch break. No need to stand there glaring at me like a watch dog.”

“…You’re worried about Ki-chan, aren’t you?” she said in a small voice all of a sudden. At her words, the clicking noises my fingers had been making came to a complete stop. “I know. Even if you don’t say anything, I can see everything clearly written on your face.”

The irritation I’d been suppressing all this time began to boil once again. Trying to keep my voice down as not to cause unnecessary ruckus, I glared at her and spit my answers right to her face.

“So what’s your point?” I hissed, “You guys shot him and banned me from seeing him these entire two weeks by using ‘investigation’ as an excuse. And now you’re asking if I’m worried about him? I’ll tell you I’m so _goddamn_ worried I can’t stop seeing his dying face every single time I close my eyes. You satisfied now?”

“That’s not what I mean…” with her brows frowning, Satsuki lowered her gaze, avoiding meeting my eyes. However, it was before long that she took a deep breath and sighed, ending the momentary silence between us as she continued her words. “As I thought, it’s still difficult for you to accept it. But Dai-chan, you know… In the end, it’s the best decision we could ever come up with. You understand that, don’t you?”

“If I didn’t, do you think I’ll be sitting here, obediently writing reports for that four-eyes?”

That night, we were only given three choices, whether Kise shot me and offered himself to the police, me arresting Kise officially as he suggested…or I took him and we both ran away, leading to the two of us becoming hunted criminals. No matter which choice we made at that time, it would be far from a happy ending.

Thus the reason why Imayoshi created a fourth scenario.

“Ah, Sakurai-kun!” Satsuki lifted her face upon the sound of sliding door and returned to her bubbly voice. When I looked over my shoulder, a familiar brown head poked from the top of desk partitions lining between us. It didn’t take even a second for our eyes to meet, and the moment it happened, that guy immediately freaked out.

“Ah, A-A-A-Aomine-san, g-g-g-good morning!” as though getting his tongue tied by his own words of greeting, Ryou took several steps away until his back was pressed against a cupboard standing nearby. It was early in the morning, but it looked as if his face had been drained out of all colors. He even forgot to greet Satsuki who called him first. Considering the part he’d played in that four-eyes’ plan, I wouldn’t be surprised that he’d be freaked the hell out of his mind whenever he saw me.

“It’s alright, Sakurai-kun. You don’t have to run away. Dai-chan is not angry at you anymore,” with a small giggle, Satsuki called him over. The brown head stared at her for a moment; doubts clearly written all over his face, but eventually he did approach us albeit the timid attitude. He stood one step back behind Satsuki, keeping a considerable distance between his position and mine. If I just yelled at him now, I was pretty sure he’d piss his pants.

“Ryou.”

“Y-Yes?!” he stood straight like a boy scout the second I called his name.

“…Sit there,” I pointed at the chair of an unoccupied desk next to mine. I swore I could almost see a sweat drop falling from his temple to his chin, but still he replied with a firm and loud “Yes, Sir!” before taking large, stiff steps as he walked and sat on top of that chair. With both hands on his knees, he settled down nervously, hanging down his head to avoid meeting my eyes until I called his name. “Look at me, Ryou.”

“Y-Yes. Can I help you with— Uwaah!”

His first words were still heavily dyed in fear, but the second he did as I said, my fingers were already in position, giving a good, hard flick on his forehead. All the tensions freezing his entire body disappeared into thin air immediately as he ended up with no choice but to look at me with confused face.

“You didn’t bring me my _bento_ today,” I told him flat out, “You’d better make twice as much for me tomorrow.”

Still holding the reddened skin on his forehead with both hands, Ryou’s eyes went wide as though in disbelief. I spared him no second glance and returned to the report on the computer screen, leaving Satsuki to take care of and explain things him. But just when I thought they already walked away, Ryou came back to my desk all of a sudden. Despite the uneasiness still left in him, he didn’t avoid to see me directly as he spoke.

“Aomine-san, about back then… I’m sorry…” with a small voice he slightly bowed his head. Knowing him, usually he would apologize with the usual full bow while expressing his regret for being alive, but this time he didn’t. Imayoshi’s order clearly stated that there must never be any words or act that would draw suspicion from others outside the six of us, and Ryou particularly was very aware of that. After all, the role he played at the pier that night was none other than the shooter himself.

“I thought Satsuki already told you that I’m not angry anymore,” with a sigh, I replied to his apology while keeping my eyes and fingers working on the report, “There was nothing else we could do and you were just following orders as the others did.”

“But… You were really angry back then. I’ve just… I’ve never seen you so furious before, so…”

His words trailed off as he lowered his gaze. Furious, huh? I supposed that was how I looked to other people at that time. Even I thought that I really did fly into total rage, but when I recalled those moments after my head cooled down, actually it wasn’t anger that I felt.

_Rather than furious, I think I was frightened._

My cell phone rang before I could say anything in return to the brown hair standing before me. Seeing the name displayed on the brightened screen, unconsciously I clicked my tongue and stood up while grabbing the still ringing device. However, just when I was about to take a step away, I noticed that Ryou was still nailed where he was, staring at me with questions written all over his face.

“…You did nothing wrong,” I told him while scratching the back of my head, “So stop with that look. There’s nothing you have to worry about.”

The last thing I saw before I really stepped out of the office was his face brightening like an idiot. That was a good thing, but that was that, and this was a different matter. Even without a mirror I knew that my face must’ve turned sour when I saw this name displayed on my cell phone, but I had to answer it anyway.

“What do you want?” I bluntly asked after putting the phone next to my ear. The person on the other side let out a chuckle when my voice reached him.

“My, my, aren’t you rude? You make me wait before answering the call and now you’re not showing even the slightest bit of respect to your superior?” with his thick accent, Imayoshi expressed his complains although the tone of his voice clearly contradicted his words as always, “Are you busy right now, Aomine?”

“Yeah. Thanks to you,” I said indifferently, “So I would appreciate it if you leave out all the introductions and cut straight to the point.”

“Haha, you don’t have to sound so irritated. Actually, I’m calling to release you from all those mountains of paperwork. Aren’t I nice?” still talking in circle, which I knew was clearly on purpose, he made a small laugh without a hint of remorse, “I trust it would be better if we talk directly rather than over the phone. I’m already on my way back from another assignment, so could you wait for me at the front gate in ten minutes? I’ll pick you up and we’ll talk on the way.”

“Now listen here, I said—“

“Oh, and you can pass the rest of the reports to Momoi,” before I could finish my words he cut in as if capable of reading my mind. I hadn’t even said another word when he chuckled once again and continued. “Don’t worry about it. I already told her that she will be the one doing the finishing anyway.”

“…Then why do I have to do it in the first place?”

“Ah, that… I just want to cheer you up a little bit since you’ve been looking so depressed lately. But as I thought, desk works are just not your cup of tea. Well, then… See you in ten minutes.”

* * *

The main road was pretty loose this afternoon. There were a lot of cars, but not so much as to cause a depressing traffic jam in the middle of the day. The sky was clear blue without a sign of rain any time soon. To be frank, it was such a nice day nearing the end of summer, but I just had to be put in a situation I hated the most.

“What a nice day. Don’t you think so, Aomine?” speaking exactly what I had in mind mere seconds ago, Imayoshi was driving happily with a subtle smile painted on his face. Contrary to him, I was not pleased in the very least.

“So what do you want?” I cut straight to the point, repeating the question I had asked him on the phone, “And more importantly, where are you taking me?”

“Easy there. It’s still a bit further away, so why don’t we enjoy our ride with a nice chat?” he replied in a friendly tone, but the smile on his face faded when he saw I responded to his words with a glare. He let out a sigh, and now wearing a different smile, eventually his voice became serious. “I suppose a nice chat is out of the question then. Well… I do have something I’d like to tell you directly. About that person, I’ve finished my research on him.”

The irritations that had been eating me since I first received his phone call suddenly vanished into thin air. Instead of staring at him with a glare like I did before, now I was looking at him with both curiosity and restlessness brimming in my heart, even though admitting it to someone like him was totally unbearable.

“So what did you find?” I asked. Of course, he easily noticed the change in my expression as he continued.

“It’s just as you said. He was sold to the yakuza to pay off his family’s debt and he was subjected to various crimes by the clan’s order for years,” pushing up his glasses, the corners of Imayoshi’s lips were pulled into a bitter smile, “And among those crimes he’d forced to commit were indeed murders.”

“…So?”

“So… I must apologize that I cannot let this slide,” he made an apologetic look, for real this time, “I could just overlook it if it was another crime, but murder is far too heavy. Regretfully, I will have to grant Kise-kun’s wish to surrender himself.”

“Even if it was out of his own will?”

“Even if it was out of his own will,” Imayoshi repeated my words. He must’ve noticed that my face darkened immediately although I didn’t say a word. “Aomine, I understand how you’re feeling. But you see, it is Kise-kun’s own will to surrender himself. No matter how you look at it, that is the right thing to do. If we stop him from doing so, don’t you think he will be ridden with guilt for the rest of his life?”

“So much for the ‘fourth scenario’…”

“Well, I said that, but you don’t have to worry about it. As they said, good things happen to good people,” replied him with a meaningful smile. I didn’t quite catch what he meant by saying so, but before I could even ask, we saw a fairly large building a bit further away and Imayoshi casually claimed. “Ah, we’re here.”

It was a hospital, quite the renowned one if I might say, but it was pretty far from our headquarters. Even with the car, it took more than 30 minutes for us to get here and now I knew why they picked this place to hide Kise albeit temporarily.

“What? Are you going to arrest him right here and now?” I asked almost without thinking when Imayoshi dropped off the car along with me and headed for the lobby.

“Nah, that can wait until he gets better,” the four-eyes responded calmly, “There are things that I need to explain to Kise-kun. I would also like to check up on his condition since Momoi said he has not regained consciousness since he was first admitted here two weeks ago.”

“What’s Satsuki got to do with it?”

“I assigned her to keep watch over him for awhile and report to me regularly. I figured she is the right person for the job since as far as I know, she was pretty close with Kise-kun before. Haven’t I told you that?” he replied innocently, and when I said he never told me shit, he chuckled and apologized although as usual I couldn’t sense any remorse coming from him.

We entered the lobby and gave our names to the receptionist before being directed to the elevator. While waiting for the pair of iron door to slide open, I pried further into his previous statement.

“You said Kise hasn’t regained consciousness up until now. Is his condition really that bad?”

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I said I was genuinely worried. In the first place, everything about him always sent me over the edge. I got worried over every little thing whenever it concerned him, and now that I heard he hadn’t regained consciousness for two weeks, of course I would be totally anxious.

“The bullet-removal surgery itself was a success. They said it would leave a scar, but that’s all. If I might say, his condition was better than yours back then,” he replied. At the same time, the bell signaling the elevator’s arrival rang with a clear _ding_. We stepped inside after some people came out and Imayoshi pressed the button to the fifth floor. “However, he suffered from tremendous blood loss, not to mention the previous tortures he’d endured, added with piling exhaustion. But more than that, I think his mental condition is the thing that wore him down the most.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means exactly like it sounds. Did you know? In all the reports Momoi has informed me of Kise-kun’s recovery progress, there is one thing that never changes since her first to last report.” the corners of his lips were pulled into a meaningful smile, “In his sleep, Kise-kun will always mumble two words over and over again: ‘Aomine-cchi’ and ‘I’m sorry’.”

My eyes went wide at his last sentence, but I didn’t have the chance to ask because the iron box we were in came to a halt along with the bell’s sounds. The doors slid open, revealing the quiet hallways dominated by white, and without a pause Imayoshi led me to one of the rooms located on the right side. He carefully opened the door with a slow swing, and soon the scent of medicines grew stronger when we stepped into the small, also white-dominated chamber.

In the middle of the room, a guy with blond hair was lying motionless on the bed, covered in white bandages under the hospital clothing he was wearing with a transfusion stuck into the back of his right hand.

“Well, here we are,” Imayoshi exhaled a long sigh as though releasing all the exhaustion after our little trip, “As you can see, he’s been like this all this time. But his condition really is getting better, so perhaps if you wake him up now, he will respond.”

I seriously doubted it would be as simple as that, but still I walked to his side without complaining, sitting on a chair placed nearby. Kise’s eyes were closed and there were almost no sign of him being alive aside of the faint breaths raising and lowering his chest in a regular tempo. Even on his face, there were several small bandages, not to mention the bigger one wrapped around his forehead. Seeing him like this, I couldn’t help but feel a déjà vu.

“Kise…” I called his name, gently taking his free hand into mine, “Hey, it’s me.”

I could feel his fingers twitching a bit although he didn’t open his eyes. Still, I called out to him again while stroking his hair. After a few seconds, finally I saw his head inclining towards me in a slow movement; his eyes beginning to flutter open.

“…Ao…mine-cchi…?” his voice was hoarse and I could barely feel any strength in it. Even his lips almost remained unmoving as he spoke my name once again; his eyes weren’t focusing. “Aomine-cchi…?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” relieved that he finally came to it, I caressed his cheeks with my fingers, “How are you feeling?”

Instead of answering my questions, his eyes began to wander across the room in confusion, occasionally blinking to prevent too much light coming into his sight all of a sudden after such a long sleep. Even without words, the questions he had on his mind was already clear as day, but before I could explain the situation to him, the four-eyes standing near the foot of the bed preceded me.

“You are in a hospital, Kise-kun,” he said in his usual accented tone, “Due to the injuries you suffered that night, we have no other choice but to bring you here lest we will risk you losing your life.”

“…?!” probably taken off-guard by the unexpected visitor, Kise squeezed my fingers hard in his hand and attempted to get up, if not for the injuries all over his body which made him grimaced in pain instead. I couldn’t really tell if it was fear or mere surprise as he stared at the four-eyes. “I…Imayoshi…san?”

“Relax. I mean no harm,” the guy in question replied in a perfectly composed manner; his usual smile plastered on his face, “You have assisted us to stop the drug smuggling, so as the team’s captain, I would like to first of all convey my gratitude in person on top of making sure that you are already in better condition. Thank you very much for your help, Kise-kun.”

“You’re…welcome,” still dumbfounded by the sudden burst of information, Kise could only mumble the most typical answer he could think of in his current state with his face still flustered, “But I… Why am I…”

“Why are you here, do you mean? Well, I would gladly explain, but I do not quiet fancy being the third person for too long,” while pushing up his glasses, Imayoshi gave me a meaningful look on purpose, “As for my reason for coming here, there is something I would like to tell you.”

I could see that Kise was still bewildered, but he gave a small nod in response as though trying to say that he was listening. To be honest, I also hadn’t heard of these things the four-eyes said he wanted to tell Kise, so I was also curious.

“First of all, I must apologize that while you are being kept here, I have looked into your background for investigation purposes without your consent. I hope you will understand that there are things I need to confirm before making decisions,” he explained in a formal manner, “Secondly, I received information from, let us say, a _trustworthy_ source, that the leadership of the yakuza group where you belong has changed after the smuggling failed.”

“Changed?” Kise tilted his head, “So that means…”

“Indeed,” once again, a meaningful smile was drawn on his face. After knowing him for awhile, I thought I had gotten used to him blurting out random surprises after making that kind of smile, but I would never have expected that his next words would be so unexpected I needed ten seconds to actually get it into my system. “The new boss is the young master of the main family, the previous boss’ only son. And one of the very first orders he issued to the entire clan was…’ _to_ _let the man named Kise Ryouta go free and remove all obligations bound on him_ ’.”

I was totally caught off guard when he said that since it was totally beyond my imagination. When I looked at Kise, his face seemed neither happy nor sad. He was just…plain surprised. He didn’t even make so much as a twitch for awhile and remained frozen on the bed where he was sitting, giving a blank stare at the guy standing before him with a mysteriously satisfied smile.

“I’m…free…?” finally getting his voice back, Kise looked at Imayoshi in disbelief who simply nodded at his question. He slowly lowered his face, staring at the palm of his own hands before mumbling his next words. “I see… I’m finally…free…”

At the same time, a drop of tear fell to the white sheet covering his lower half, and another one, and another one. The pair of golden spheres in his eyes was soon drowning in those warm drops; his lips trembling as he covered his face with both hands, struggling to suppress the sniffles that sounded as if they were ready to burst out of his throat had he not gritted his teeth. To be honest, it was the first time I saw him crying like this. His shoulders were quivering; he looked so vulnerable that I couldn’t even bring myself to say anything. It was as if all this time he had been building a tall, big wall to protect himself from others, and right now that very wall had crumbled, finally revealing his true self.

“I am happy for you, Kise-kun. Now you don’t have to be concerned of being hunted down by them anymore,” Imayoshi’s voice broke the momentary silence dying the small room. I threw a glance at him and I could see that the smile he was posing right now wasn’t made up, meaning that he was telling the truth. However, when I was just about to return my sight to the blond sitting in front of me, I noticed the four-eyes’ smile vanished all of a sudden; his voice now speaking in a completely serious tone. “Well, but that is that, and this is a different story. I did say I have looked into your background and my investigation resulted in confirmation that in the past years, you have indeed committed quite a pile of crimes, among those are activities related to drugs smuggling and murders. I believe you are not going to deny this, are you, Kise-kun?”

For a moment, I could see Kise’s eyes widened when this topic was suddenly brought up. Imayoshi told me that the entire thing about arresting Kise could wait until he had gotten better, so I wasn’t delighted that he suddenly started talking about it right here and now when Kise was still in this state no less. But before I could voice any complain, the blond suddenly sat straight, wiping the tears off his eyes and returning Imayoshi’s look in full conviction.

“No, I’m not,” he replied without even the slightest hint of doubt in his voice, “I am fully aware of what I have done and I intend to take responsibilities of everything.”

_…So either way, it’s still going to end like this._

There was nothing I could say to that. Kise did it under those bastards’ orders; he committed crimes because he was not given any choice. Some of those deeds might even have been carried out when he was still under-aged. But the only thing that mattered was whether he did it or not, which he obviously did. True, his punishment could be reduced due to all of those considerations, but the point was he would still be jailed for it, perhaps as soon as he stepped out of this hospital.

And that was exactly why I was totally dumbfounded when Imayoshi asked his next question.

“Well then… Any evidence that may prove your guilt?” he asked casually.

“Huh?” seemingly sharing the same thought as I did, Kise could only stare at the four-eyes in confusion, “But I just—“

“You just confessed that you have committed crimes in the past, yes. But do you have evidence to support your claim? You can’t just come and say ‘Sir, I’ve killed a man’ without any proofs, can you?”

“Well, I…” Kise began to stutter with his words as he struggled to find an answer, “Surely, the police have some sort of clues in store from previous investigations? Like, for example, I think Aomine-cchi has figured out all of the hints I left from the last drug transaction cases.”

“Hints? What hints? I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re talking about, Kise-kun.”

Totally at loss of words, Kise turned to at me with questioning look, but obviously I couldn’t give him the answer he wanted since I was also at loss.

“What’s this all about? I don’t get what you’re saying,” I glared at the four-eyes whose smile still hadn’t left his face. There was no way he didn’t know about all the clues Kise left in those four transaction cases since I had literally explained everything to Satsuki and Ryou.

“It seems that there is no sufficient evidence that supports your statement of the crimes you have committed,” instead of answering my questions, Imayoshi let out a sigh while fixing the position of his glasses, “If that’s the case, then there is no reason for me to have you arrested, Kise-kun. I shall take my leave so the both of you can finally enjoy your little reunion together undisturbed.”

“Imayoshi-san—“

“Have a good rest, Kise-kun. I hope the next time we meet, you are already in much better condition,” the four-eyes said his goodbye and strolled out through the door, looking at me one last time with a sudden wink, “Oh, and… Aomine, tomorrow you will be in charge of reporting again. Please submit them all to me before lunch break. I’ll see you later.”

With that said, he left for real as his footsteps began to fade away into the distance. I was still at loss of his unimaginable actions for a moment, but then a sudden realization dawned on me. Instead of being grateful for what he did, I cursed under my breath for having played right into his hands.

_That bastard… Damn you and your evil plot…_

A creaking sound scattered my thoughts as I was brought back to reality. When I came to it, what I saw in front of me was Kise pushing away the blanket covering his body, squirming to leave his bed despite having to fight the pain from his unhealed injuries.

“H-Hey, Kise, what are you doing?!” I stood from my chair and grabbed his shoulders right before his toes touched the floor.

“I’m going after Imayoshi-san,” he answered in a mumble while trying to pull out the transfusion stuck on his right hand; his eyes fixed only at the slightly opened door where the four-eyes had just walked through, “He must’ve gotten things wrong. He shouldn’t set me free so easily like this.”

“Wait, get back to your bed. Your injuries are not healed yet.”

“But he doesn’t understand!” Kise looked at me with pleading eyes, “Please, Aomine-cchi, you have to tell him!”

“Imayoshi understands everything, you idiot! That’s why he did all this for us. That’s why you’re here right now in this hospital!”

I didn’t intent to yell, but apparently my voice was loud enough that Kise was frozen in place. It looked as if he had just been slapped awake from a spell, and now he was staring at me with bewilderment and hundreds of questions written clearly on his face. Now that I’d said that, I knew I had no choice but to explain everything to him.

“It was all that four-eyes’ plan. He’d thought of this even before we went on with the raid,” I let out a long sigh, “You were shot that night, Kise. Ryou shot you, and then they admitted you to a different hospital from all the other injured guys so those outside Imayoshi’s main team, including the upper-ups, won’t be aware of your existence and the role you’ve played in this. The fact that they shot you right before you shot me was pure coincidence.”

“But why?” he asked, “Why did they do this?”

“Because Imayoshi knew that with our situation being the way it was, in the end I would look for a way to run together with you. If that happens, the entire team’s reputation would plummet for having one of them escaping with a suspect. That’s why he looked for a way to temporarily hide you, so in the meantime he could investigate more about your past and find chances to get you out of this,” I scratched the back of my head as I explained. Once again, I sighed while adding to my words. “Well, and this is just my opinion, but since he discovered that you were actually forced to do all of those crimes, probably he thought he doesn’t need to arrest you since you’re not actually a bad guy.”

Kise’s eyes stared into mine with an indescribable look before he slowly lowered his head. I couldn’t see the expression hidden under those golden threads of his bangs, but I didn’t feel any more resistance coming from him even when he finally began to talk again.

“How do you know I’m not a bad guy?” he asked in a small voice without lifting his face. I was still holding his shoulders and I could feel he was shaking a little bit, even though he sounded calm.

“For starter, if you’re really a bad guy, you wouldn’t give us the information about that smuggling,” I pulled the chair closer, settling back down on it with a faint _thud_.  My hands slid from his shoulders to his arms, and then to his fingers. But still he didn’t lift his face even when I’d tried to peer into his expression, and at that moment something crossed my mind. “Now that you mention it… I remember you told me that if I could find you at the pier, you would tell me the reason why you revealed the smuggling scheme to me that night, but until now I haven’t heard about it.”

“That was…because I’ve leaked your—the police’s plan to them before…”

“But you could’ve easily dropped a message somewhere we could find since we would definitely investigate into it. There’s no need for you to purposely drop hints for me so I could find you waiting in my house before you told me about it. In the first place, why risk yourself coming all the way to my place?” even though I couldn’t get a clear look in his face, it was easy to tell that he was quite taken aback. The thin fingers in my hands grew restless as they tried to squirm their way out, but I held them tightly instead, entwining our fingers together. “Say, Kise… Why did you do all that?”

“………”

“Won’t you tell me, Kise?” I touched his arms. It was just like before; the more I pushed him, the more he would retreat back. Even now, he only bit his lips instead of answering my question, averting his face away when I tried to get closer. There was no way to get him talking on his own…except by cornering him without leaving any chance for escape and that was exactly what I would do. “Was it because you want me to find you?”

I could see his eyes going wide upon hearing my words, and in the next second he struggled to pull back from me all of a sudden. In his current condition, it wasn’t difficult for me to grab both of his wrists but still, he didn’t want to look my way.

“Let me…go!” he said in a restrained voice, clenching his fists as if trying to put up a fight although it was obviously useless.

“I won’t. Not until you tell me the truth,” ignoring his struggles, I tightened my grip on his wrists. Despite whatever reason he might have, too long had he hidden so many things from me about himself. There was no way I would let him slip off my grasp once again. “Answer me, Kise.”

“I don’t…want to…”

“Did you hope that I find you at the pier that night?” I asked again, “You told me before…that you returned to their side because the time we spent together was nothing more than a delusion. But, you know, Kise… Could it be that you actually want me to get you out of that world and return to the so-called ‘delusion’ where there are only the two of us living together as any other normal couples?”

“Stop it… I beg you, stop… I-I couldn’t possibly…”

His uneven breaths soon became sniffles. Even though his reddened eyes had dried out a few moments ago, right now they looked as if they were ready to burst into tears again. Seeing him like this, suddenly I realized that I had had the wrong thought. When he cried after Imayoshi told him he had been freed by those yakuza, I thought he finally revealed his true, vulnerable self for the first time after posing a strong front all this time. I thought that was the first time I saw him crying like that.

But I was wrong.

“…I knew it…” without thinking, I blurted out those words. Kise looked at me in confusion, both flustered and anxious, but I couldn’t help but chuckled. “I’ve been wondering why something feels familiar when I first stepped into this room of yours. Don’t you see? This is almost exactly the same as the moment when you first woke up in the hospital after I found you lying in that alley half a year ago.”

Shimmering golden hair; long eyelashes adorning the pair of spheres in his eyes with the same color as the silky-smooth threads on his head. Even with bruises and cuts all over his body, the natural beauty of his face still stood out albeit the fact that he was a guy. It was the type of pretty face which women would find irresistible and men filled with jealousy. At the same time, however, he left such a fragile impression that no one – if they had a heart – would not find pitiable.

That was the very first impression I had when I found him back then, and even now, I found myself still having exactly the same thought. Perhaps this was the reason why I was so assured there was no way he could be a bad guy.

“Kise… You said you might have already fallen in love with me since the first time we met. Have you ever considered the possibility that the same also goes for me?” I let go of his hands, and in its place I began to stroke the golden threads of his hair, “You were just a stranger, but for some reason I felt that I couldn’t leave you alone. I wanted to have you by my side; I wanted to live together with you. I didn’t care who you were or where you came from. My mind was filled with thoughts of you and only you. You see, Kise? Ever since we first met, you have become the most important person in my life.”

As I said this, I took his hands and put a small, metal object on them. Kise made a small gasp when he saw what it was.

“You forgot this before,” I said, gently closing his fingers over the spare key of my apartment which he had purposely left in my hands back then, “Don’t lose it again. You won’t be able to come in without it, right?”

Gripping the small object tightly in his palms, Kise brought it closer to his face as he shut his eyes tight; tears streaming down his cheek. Without saying a word, eventually he gave a small nod in response to my question.

“That’s good. Now, let me ask you once again…” I brushed the side of his face, gently bumping our foreheads together, “Back then, by doing so did you want me to come find you, Kise?”

“…Yes…”

“You said you returned to their side because the time we spent together was just a delusion, but did you hope that somehow someone would get you out of that world?”

“…Yes…”

“So, Kise…” I cupped his face in my hands as I gazed into his eyes, “If I say I want to be with you, if I say I don’t care who you are or where you come from or what you’ve done… Will you come back to me?”

This time, he didn’t answer immediately. At the same time, however, I noticed that while he was clutching tight at the small key I gave him, his fingers were nervously trying to reach me. Even when they had touched the clothes covering my chest, he didn’t dare to do something more than tugging on it.

“…I have…done a lot of horrible things,” he whispered; his lips trembled as he slightly leaned his head against my collarbone, “Although it wasn’t out of my own will, I still did it and hurt a lot of people. I didn’t like that; I hated myself for that. That’s why I thought, when they found me and took me back to that world, it was probably a punishment for me because I was trying to run away from my mistakes by living happily with you. Even so, Aomine-cchi… Are you alright with me? Is it really okay…for me to be with you?”

Again. It was the same question again. Now I could finally understand why he cried when he asked this to me back then. I circled my arm around his waist and pulled him towards me. Ignoring his startled face at the abrupt movement, I went ahead and planted a kiss on his lips.

“…?! A-Aomine-cchi…?!”

He retreated back in surprise, but I pulled him in again and sealed away his words. At first, he was clutching at my shoulders, but eventually his grip softened. Little by little, I could feel him nervously wrapping his arms around my back.

“Idiot. What kind of question is that? Didn’t I just ask you to come back to me?” I told him after we separated, “If…you can’t let go of your past that easily, I completely understand. In fact, it means you’re a normal person. But the point is right now, I’m telling you to stop loathing yourself, stupid, because I certainly don’t.”

“…Yes…”

For the second time today, he wiped the tears off his face and looked at me, now with no more resistance in his eyes. I returned his look, and the next moment I let out a small laugh while rustling his golden hair into a mess.

“I’ll visit often,” I said to him, “You’re not going to run away anymore…are you?”

“I won’t…” after all this time, his lips were finally drawn into a small smile, “I will…wait for Aomine-cchi to come and bring me back home.”

“That’s good. Because if you ever run away from me again, this time I’ll never forgive you.”

I pulled him into my arms, burying my face on the soft threads of his hair. Finally… Finally… I had spent the past half a year brooding over whether I should look away or keep searching for the truth. I had been frightened to even imagine that the things I believed might turn out to be nothing more but lies. However, after all this time I could finally feel relief entering my chest. Today, tomorrow, the next day after tomorrow and the days to come afterwards… He would be here. He would be right here by my side, and I would never let him go ever again.

_Because he is the one person I could never live my life without._


	6. Extra Chapter

_Rumbles of thunders stormed the sky tonight. Like a tireless torrent of gunshots, countless raindrops never stopped hitting the windows as though trying to break it apart. And it was pitch black outside, without even a glimpse of light visible as far as I could see._

_The temperature inside the apartment was low. I didn’t turn the fan or air-conditioner on, but I had to curl up in a blanket as I sat on the sofa to keep myself warm. The time shown by the clock on the wall was 1:45 AM, which meant this downpour had been going on for almost five hours straight. And yet it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon._

_With all the noises outside, I wasn’t supposed to be able to hear the sound of the clock ticking, let alone my heart beating, but in fact I could. My fingertips and toes felt cold, and no matter how hard I was clutching at the blanket I was wrapped in, I couldn’t feel at ease. How many times had I been checking at my phone since hours ago? But whenever I turned it on, all I could see was the screen’s empty display without any notification whatsoever._

_There was no reply to my message, no call at all._

_“Dammit…” in a whisper, I cursed under my breath. Not receiving any replies at all already made me anxious enough, and to make things worse, in my head I kept hearing his voice promising that he would return._

_“…Aomine-cchi…” in a small voice, I called out to his name in hope that it would reach him, “Aomine-cchi, where are you…?”_

_A blast of thunder pierced through the night sky once again. Burying my face on my knees, I clutched harder at the white blanket while covering myself entirely underneath. It felt cold… The tips of my fingers were trembling as I could do nothing but holding onto the silent phone in my hands._

* * *

A glimmer of sunray pierced through the slightly opened curtains, shooting right towards me that I had no choice but to open my eyelids. After blinking several times to adjust myself to the light, it finally came to me that I was still lying on the bed, wrapped in the comfortable blanket up to half of my face. Reflexively, I reached out to my cell phone hidden under the pillow, finding out that it was almost ten in the morning.

_I guess I overslept._

I didn’t usually wake up this late. Letting out a big yawn, I squirmed to get out of bed, but it was only at that time I discovered it was almost impossible for me to move. My waist was locked tight and my back was pressing against something hard. The only thing I could do was to try turning my head back a little bit, so I did exactly that.

_Ah…_

It was him. Wearing not even a single piece of clothes to cover his upper half, the first thing I saw when I turned back was obviously Aomine-cchi’s tanned, broad chest as he circled his nicely toned arms around my waist, hugging me as if I was a body pillow.

“You’re finally here…”

A sigh of relief escaped my lips as my mind flew back to yesterday night. He did tell me to turn in ahead of him since he would come home late. In fact, even until I fell asleep he hadn’t returned and to be honest this had been going on for the past few weeks. It seemed that he was quite busy with the cases at hands, so he had no choice but to often work overtime until everything had settled down.

And those seemed to be pretty dangerous, as well.

With a little bit of struggle, I managed to free myself from his grip without waking him up. As I gazed down at his resting figure, I noticed a small cut on his left eyebrow. I didn’t think it was here yesterday, so it must be new. He got another small bruise on his arm, too, even though the ones on his torso hadn’t fully healed yet. And he was faintly snoring.

_You must be really tired, aren’t you?_

Aomine-cchi would only snore – just a little – when he was extremely exhausted. Yesterday, too, must’ve been pretty rough. The fact that he didn’t wake up after all the efforts I put up to escape his hold also served as a stronger proof. He had good instincts after all, so there was no way he didn’t notice I’d been squirming in his arms unless he was totally worn down.

“…Welcome home, Aomine-cchi. Good work yesterday,” I whispered to him, giving a light kiss on his forehead. He let out a faint groan when my lips touched his skin, but still he didn’t wake up. Despite the concerns I felt upon seeing his exhausted and injured self, I found his reaction kinda funny that I couldn’t help but chuckle. I really love these small things about Aomine-cchi that nobody else had seen.

Tip-toeing to ensure that the sound of my steps wouldn’t bother his sleep, I left to the bathroom afterwards. A quick shower might be nice, I thought as I stripped off my top, but before that I should brush my teeth first. I turned to face the washbasin, finding a pair of identical mugs and toothbrushes sitting next to it. I said identical, but actually they were colored blue and yellow respectively, and I usually used the blue one.

For some reason, I felt like letting out a small laugh once again, probably because I recalled how Aomine-cchi frowned so much the first time we were about to use this mug and toothbrush. In the end, it appeared that he was just embarrassed and considering how he always acted tough in front of everybody, I sort of felt proud to have the privilege of seeing this adorable side of him.

And yet my movement was halted when I lifted my face and saw the reflection shown by the large mirror attached to the wall right above the washbasin.

“Kise?”

My body almost jumped at the sudden call. Almost without thinking, I put my top back on and abruptly returned to the bedroom, almost stumbling on my own legs.

“Yes?” I answered. Immediately after opening the bathroom’s door, I saw Aomine-cchi already sitting on the bed, half covered in the white blanket. His dark blue eyes caught my figure in silence, but the moment I reached his side, he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him before pushing me down. “W-What gives— Mmmph?!”

He pressed our lips together, pushing me back with such beastly strength that I ended up lying flat on my back. His tongue invaded my mouth, entwining with mine and soon I started hearing the sloppy sounds we made echoing in my ears.

“Nngh— Aomine-cchi, what are you doing?” I pushed him away the moment I found the chance to separate. A thin layer of saliva was formed between our mouth, and with both hands pinned above my head, I was deemed powerless with no choice but to let his eyes captured my breathless figure lying underneath him.

“…Where were you?” he asked in a husky voice, a clear sign that he really did just wake up. Unable to understand what he meant, I knitted my brows while returning his stare in confusion.

“In the bathroom?” I tilted my head, “Is something wrong with that?”

Instead of giving me an answer, he lowered himself and drove me into a deep kiss once again. At the same time, I could feel his hands starting to undress me, unbuttoning my shirt from top to bottom that my previous effort to put the clothes back on became pointless. The feeling of his cold fingers travelling on my bare skin alone was enough to make me flinched, but as if it wasn’t enough, I felt them sliding down towards my lower part.

“Mmmn! Nnngh!”

My body nearly jumped. With all the strength I could muster, I attempted to shove him away, but to no avail. I even started hitting his shoulders with my fists and it only resulted in him deepening our kiss, invading further into my mouth while his hands purposely teasing all the sensitive parts known to him. Naturally, all of my senses responded to his touches and it didn’t take long for me to lose all the energy to resist. My face felt hot; I could feel tears beginning to pool up at the corner of my eyes as he didn’t give me the chance to even take a breath. It wasn’t the first time he did something like this to me, but still, I simply couldn’t handle this much intensity.

“That’s a really nice face you’re making,” now having his usual arrogant smirk plastered all over his face, Aomine-cchi looked at me in clear satisfaction. My chest were visibly raising and falling, struggling to fill my lungs with all the air I’d been choked out until just a few seconds ago. I really hated to admit it, but even though I didn’t want to do it, I was legit crying right now that I couldn’t even bring myself to say anything.

“…You’re…horrible…” I muttered the only words that came to mind. When I woke up awhile ago, I was feeling pretty fresh and ready to start a new day, but within a few minutes he managed to take away all of the strength in me and made _another_ part of me was ready to do— Well, something else…

“What? You don’t want it?” he asked nonchalantly, lightly stroking the front of my pants just for the sake of drawing a reaction from me. Of course, he got the reaction he wanted. In the first place, it wasn’t like I didn’t want to make love with him. My body and heart had been far too prepared of being devoured by him on a whim whenever wherever. “We didn’t get the chance to fuck these past few days, so I’m not gonna let this chance slip away.”

“You’re horrible,” I repeated the same words again, turning my face aside, but despite the things I spouted, he of all people understood very well it was nothing more than a sign that I had given up all the struggles and would resign to whatever he wanted to do with me until he was satisfied. In fact, now he was showing another grin while licking his lips.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make you enjoy this. Soon, you’ll be crying for more…as usual…” almost as if having no shame at all, he blurted out those words in full confidence before proceeding to have his fun with me.

And just like he said, I ended up crying and begging at him as my mind was completely washed away by pleasure.

* * *

“Kise, breakfast’s ready! Come out here!”

Now fully awoke and refreshed, Aomine-cchi yelled from the dining room almost without a care if it might disturb the neighbors. I, on the other hand, was forced to cancel my original plan to have a nice quick shower; left with no choice but to sprawl on the bed, unmoving like a dead body.

“Hey, what took you so long?” growing impatience, he swung the bedroom door opened and strolled inside. From my current position – lying flat on my stomach – I could only glare at him for not having even the slightest bit of remorse in his face.

“Whose fault do you think it is?” I grumbled without even bothering to lift my face from the pillow. Seriously… Half asleep or not, Aomine-cchi was a real beast. To be honest I considered myself pretty strong for a man’s standard, and yet I could barely keep my eyes opened in the aftermath.

“But you were enjoying it, weren’t you? You were crying while clinging onto me,” a smirk broke out on his face that I finally lost it.

“ _Eromine_!” without holding back, I yelled and threw a pillow at him, but regretted it soon as a dull pain invaded my back once again. I grimaced; my face contorting in pain and my eyes almost tearing up. Seeing my reaction, it seemed that Aomine-cchi finally realized what he’d done to my body.

“Fine, I’m sorry,” he exhaled a long sigh while scratching the back of his head, “But if you don’t hurry, the breakfast’s gonna get cold, though.”

“What breakfast… I bet it’s just two cups of hot coffee.”

“How did you know?”

“How did you think I know?” I pursed my lips as I continued to sulk. We’d been living together long enough for me to find out that first, Aomine-cchi only took a cup of coffee in the morning, and second, he totally sucked at cooking so there was no way he could prepare any breakfast. Plus, even if we were going to eat now, it couldn’t be called “breakfast” anymore. “Brunch” would probably suit it better.

“Well, whatever. I’ll just bring it over here…”

He left the room and returned in less than a minute, bringing two cups of coffee in his hands and offered one to me while he settled down on the bedside. I said he was bad at cooking, but when it came to coffee, Aomine-cchi could really make it delicious. With the blanket wrapping my naked body, I put up with the pain on my back and struggled to sit up, leaning back to the headboard while taking the cup offered to me. I let the luscious scent sinking into my system. Just like that, we sat next to each other, silently sipping the hot black liquid in our hands.

“…Say, Aomine-cchi…” after a few minutes had passed, I called out to him. With a small grunt, he turned sideways to face my direction. “You’ve been coming home late these past few weeks.”

“Well, yeah, there’s this difficult case we’re currently working on, so I can’t help it,” he replied while taking another sip of his coffee, “What is it? Do you miss me?”

“Aren’t you a confident one?”

“But it’s true, isn’t it? Don’t worry, though. Once I have a day off, I’m gonna spoil you rotten until you lose your mind,” pulling the corners of his lips into a familiar sneer, he closed in until our noses nearly bumped as he placed the cup in his hand on a small table next to the bed. My brows knitted together at his provocation; my cheeks beginning to feel hot that I had no choice but to avoid his deep stare. However, it was due to the close distance between us that I saw and was reminded of the small cut on his eyebrow again.

“How did you get this, Aomine-cchi?” I put my hand on the side of his face; slightly brushing his injury with my thumb, “Did you have a fight with someone?”

“Huh? Oh, this? Yeah, I guess you can put it that way. The last guy we arrested put up quite a fight that eventually we had to shoot him in the legs so he’d stay still.”

“You’ve been injured a lot lately.”

“Naturally, when you’re arresting people, some of them might fight back, especially when they’ve been driven into a corner,” Aomine-cchi replied casually, but noticing the concerned stare I was giving him, he sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Look, Kise… Those kinds of things are normal in this line of work. It’s nothing to be worried over.”

“I…suppose…yes…”

Just like he said, in my head I knew very well the risks that came with his job. Those were nothing but extremely minor injuries, but I still felt uneasy whenever I found out he was hurt because of it, even in the slightest bit. Unconsciously, I hung my head down, staring at the black liquid inside the cup I was holding, but all of a sudden, Aomine-cchi snatched it away from me and put it on the table alongside his.

“Enough about that. How about yours?” without waiting for my answer, he pulled the blanket covering my body until my upper half was completely visible. As expected, his eyes were directed towards the bullet scar on my right shoulder. “It looks better now, but does it still hurt?”

“Isn’t it a bit late to ask about that, though?” I pursed my lips at his completely guiltless remark. If he really was worried about it, he should’ve thought twice before pinning me on the bed like he just did awhile ago. But in any case, it was already healed. “Well, I haven’t felt anything out of the ordinary for a few days now. I think it should be okay.”

“Do you need to have a check-up just in case?”

“Ah, no. I’ll be alright. I can already use this arm normally, so there’s nothing to worry about,” putting up a smile as reassuring as possible, I brushed away his insistence with a wave of hand.

_In the first place, it wasn’t as bad as the one I inflicted on you._

“If you say so, it’s all good then…” albeit faintly, I could hear him letting out a sigh of relief. With his fingertips, he gently caressed the scar embedded on my skin, but not so long afterwards, he rose from the bed while stretching his arms. “Well then, I’d better get going soon.”

“You’re leaving?” before my head could think, my mouth already spouted those words right the next second after seeing him standing up. Aomine-cchi raised an eyebrow, looking at me in confusion upon my sudden remark and realizing what I’d just said, I was unable to find any other words to cover it up that I could only hung my head down once again. “…I’m sorry.”

“Do you really miss me that much?” he asked in response to my totally exposed feeling. Now that it had come to this, I wanted to say yes, but of course it was impossible. I couldn’t just whine at him to stay at home when he obviously had works to do. In the end, I only averted my eyes to avoid meeting his gaze, but to my surprise, instead of teasing me like I expected he would do, Aomine-cchi ruffled my hair gently and pulled me into his arms.

“Aomine-cchi?”

“You’re really lonely, aren’t you?” his low voice reverberated in my ears, “Sorry for leaving you by yourself so often. Once this case is closed, I promise I’ll take some days off.”

“That… That’s not what I mean. You don’t have to do that,” I looked up at him, but he stroked my cheek instead.

“Nah, no worries. I’ve been thinking of taking one since I haven’t done so for a long time, ‘s all.”

“…Sorry…” pressing my face against his torso, I wrapped my arms around his back and hugged him tight. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. It was normal for people to leave for their job every day, but for some reason today I really didn’t want to see him leaving. Probably it was because he’d been coming home very late in the past few weeks; probably it was because he’d been slightly injured. Seeing my conflicted expression, all of a sudden Aomine-cchi pinched my nose that I nearly choked.

“What is it with the constant apologies? Did you catch Ryou’s germ when he shot you that night?” he said without letting me go until I shook my head hard and struggled to break free, “There’s nothing to worry about. Didn’t I tell you I’d spoil you rotten once I’m done with this case?”

“…Yes.”

“Then stop with the sad face. Now you’re making me feel bad, too,” replied him while holding my arms and made a small distance between us. When I looked up, for the last time today I found my figure reflected in his dark blue eyes. He gazed at me in silence, but not long afterwards, I could feel him running his fingers through the strands of my hair before he lowered himself and kissed my lips.

“Mmm…” I let out a small moan when our lips met. It wasn’t an intense kiss like he did before; it was much more gentle and kind, as if he was trying to tell me that he actually also wanted to stay with me. When we finally separated, I looked at him and circled my arms around his neck, hugging him tight while whispering into his ears.

“I’ll be waiting…” I told him.

“Yeah. I’ll see you tonight.”

I was planning to see him off to the front door, but when I tried to stand up, the pain in my back acted up again that I ended up falling back on the bed. Aomine-cchi laughed at my awkward position although he did help me to sit up again while saying there was no way he’d let me walk out wrapped only in the blanket. I pursed my lips and pouted, but accepted one last kiss from him on my forehead before he said his goodbye and left for real this time.

_…There he goes…_

For a few minutes, I remained staring at the closed door even though Aomine-cchi’s figure was no longer in sight. Letting out a really long sigh, the next thing I did was to sprawl on the bed once again. My back had begun to feel better, but I was still feeling exhausted. While waiting for my energy to be recharged, I looked around the room to sort out my plans for the day. As usual, perhaps there was nothing to do except the regular chores. Since I wasn’t allowed to go outside for the time being, even shopping for groceries was out of the question and needed to be done through delivery service.

Yes. For almost six months now, I had been put under house confinement.

It wasn’t imposed on me by official verdict, nor had a warrant been issued for my arrest. After the things that had happened, as I thought it simply didn’t feel right for me to run free just like this. To be honest, I had come to terms with myself to understand that everyone had been trying to tell me the crimes I committed in the past wasn’t out of my own free will. Likewise, I had also decided to accept their kindness and stop blaming myself. However, still… Those were horrible things I’d done in my younger days, thus I asked whether there was anything I could do as a substitute for being granted freedom.

And so, after spending three to four months recovering from all the physical injuries, including the bullet wound, I was given two choices: To assist their investigation with my knowledge and experience of the yakuza as an anonymous informant, or to be confined at home for half a year with the balcony as the furthest limit I could step out to, just so I would still have access to sunlight for health’s sake.

_Although… I must say that my decision at that time was more inclined towards how I could make up for my grave betrayal to Aomine-cchi._

The sudden ringing of my cell phone nearly made me jumped out of the bed. I turned around to find it under my pillow, but it was only at that moment I recalled I had really put it back there before leaving for the bathroom, so when Aomine-cchi jumped on me and made a mess of the bed, it must be buried somewhere around the wrinkled sheets and blankets, stuck under one of these scattered pillows.

“Hello?” I answered abruptly, having no chance to look at the caller’s name after finally discovering the phone wrapped under the bed sheet on its fifth ring.

_“Ki-chan, it’s been awhile! How are you?”_

“M-Momo-cchi?!”

I couldn’t hide my surprise upon hearing the bubbly voice from the other end. Of course, she was no longer unfamiliar to me as we quickly became good friends shortly after we were introduced by Aomine-cchi back then. But still, it really had been a long time since we talked properly to each other.

 _“Tee-hee, were you surprised?”_ just like usual, as though capable of reading my mind she giggled immediately after hearing my response, _“How are you, Ki-chan? Is your wound already healed? How are things with Dai-chan?”_

“I’m… I’m good. Just like the doctor said, it does leave a scar, but I no longer feel any pain,” adjusting to her friendly greetings, I answered with a small laugh. In contrast to Aomine-cchi, Momo-cchi was visibly attentive and cheerful. Whenever I talked to her, it didn’t take long for the atmosphere to become casual and comfortable. “As for the things with Aomine-cchi, well… Everything’s back to normal…I guess…”

 _“Ah, so you guys are back to a lovey-dovey couple as usual,”_ she blurted those words without holding back that my face turned bright red even though she wasn’t here looking at me, _“By the way, Ki-chan, is Dai-chan still at home?”_

“Eh? Aomine-cchi?” I frowned at her question, “He just left a few minutes ago. Was he supposed to arrive earlier at the office? Maybe you should call directly to his cell phone.”

 _“No, no, that’s fine. He worked until very late yesterday, so our superior allows him to come in the afternoon today,”_ replied her with a reassuring voice. However, the next words she said made me frowned even more. _“Actually, I want to talk to you, Ki-chan. And we want to keep this a secret from Dai-chan for awhile. That’s why I asked you if he’s still there.”_

“Talk to…me?” I wouldn’t be so bewildered if she just wanted to talk about normal, everyday things as two friends usually did, but I didn’t understand why it must be kept a secret from Aomine-cchi. To my question, she gave a reassuring confirmation before continuing with yet another surprising question.

_“Say, Ki-chan… If you don’t have anything planned for tonight, let’s go have dinner together. I’ll send you the restaurant’s address later.”_

“Dinner— But, Momo-cchi, I’m not allowed to—“

 _“—go outside, right?”_ once again, she caught up to me before I could finish my words, _“To tell you the truth, Imayoshi-san’s the one who told me to invite you. Everyone will also be there.”_

“Everyone? Do you mean your entire team?” I asked in confusion, in which she responded with another convincing confirmation, “So Aomine-cchi will be there, too?”

 _“Ah, no. He won’t be there…”_ she said with a rather apologetic tone. Right now I was totally at loss of what she’d been talking about, but when I told her that, the only thing she said only served to spur both my curiosity and anxiety. _“Actually, Ki-chan… There’s something we want to discuss with you personally. It concerns Dai-chan…”_

* * *

Lights, cars and people. Those were basically the only three things I saw since I first stepped out of the apartment until I finally reached this busy part of the city. Moreover, it was right after office hour. To be honest, I felt kind of lost walking on my own in this crowd. For someone who had been locked up indoor for half a year, even if I still knew my way around, it felt peculiar to finally see the outside world again although they mostly remained unchanged as far as memory served.

Donned in a pale yellow V-neck under a light green shirt, topped with a dark grey jacket and paired with my favorite jeans, I blended well with the hordes of people passing through the sideways packed with lines of stores. Many of them were restaurant and bars, and even from the street I could see the inside was totally packed. I could not, however, find the place I was looking for. Thus, I spent almost 20 minutes walking aimlessly, shifting my eyes back and forth from the description sent to my cell phone and the number of the buildings around me.

“Ki-chan, over here!”

My ears twitched instinctively upon hearing my name being called. I began to look around, trying to find the owner of the voice among the bustling crowd of the downtown when my sight finally caught the familiar figure waving at me. She was standing in front of a building decorated with nice light-works adorning the entrance.

“Momo-cchi, sorry to make you wait,” I told her with my breath slightly racing after I made a small run towards her. She didn’t change much, including the choice of her outfit. Just like those female detectives in the movies, she was wearing a normal set of working attire. However, even though I couldn’t really put it into words, she had a good sense in fashion that made her capable of putting these supposedly “common” pieces of clothes together in such a way into a nice combination. And since she was naturally good-looking, basically almost all kinds of outfits would suit her.

“It’s alright. I just got here, as well,” she replied with a familiar smile, “Let’s go inside. Everyone’s waiting.”

She led me into the building with light-works. Turned out it was the restaurant she mentioned before and it was pretty famous for the nice atmosphere and food ever since it was first opened three months ago. Of course, I had no idea there was a place like this, considering that I had been locked up at home, but I guessed it would be nice to come here again with Aomine-cchi some times later.

“You look well, Ki-chan,” Momo-cchi remarked as we walked through the occupied tables and busy waiters. I turned at her and saw the same smile was drawn on her face as she looked at me. “I was assigned to look after you in the hospital after the things that happened back then, so I’m really happy to see your condition has rapidly improved.”

“…Sorry…for causing so much trouble,” I hung my head down, “Thank you for taking care of me Momo-cchi.”

“Now, now. You don’t have to make that face,” with a cheerful voice she made a small laugh; her peach-colored eyes squinting as she smiled, “Ki-chan is my friend and you’re already as good as my own little brother, so of course I will help you out even if I wasn’t assigned to do it specifically.”

“Thank you,” I repeated the same words once again, now with a smile to reply to hers, “Has Momo-cchi been doing good, as well?”

“Work is busy as always, but aside of that I’ve been doing good. Now that Dai-chan is back to his normal self, our team is working as how it used to be. I think it’s all thanks to Ki-chan.”

“Eh? Me?”

“Well, now that you’re back to his side, he can’t be any happier, right? It’s always been like that since we were kids. As long as he’s happy, Dai-chan will be able do anything, no problem. Not that he’s going to show it on his face though…”

“I totally agree on the last part, yeah.”

We both chuckled and giggled, having a vivid imagination of Aomine-cchi’s face when he was pretending to be all cool even though he was actually excited at heart. This was probably why I could get close easily with Momo-cchi. Even though we were separated by a six years age span – just like me and Aomine-cchi – for some reason we had a lot of similar interests, including talking about Aomine-cchi when he wasn’t here.

“Ah, we’re here.”

I looked at the direction she was heading to and saw several private rooms lining at the furthest end of the restaurant, separated from the crowded front part. The sliding door of the room on the left side was slightly opened and I could see a group of familiar figures whom I hadn’t seen for awhile sitting cross-legged around the wooden table placed in the center. Momo-cchi walked ahead of me, taking off her shoes and slid the door wide opened.

“Sorry for the wait, everyone. I brought, Ki-chan,” she called the people inside, and the next second, they all turned at me. There were three of them; two were facing me directly, which was Imayoshi-san and Susa-san. On their right side was Wakamatsu-san, while Momo-cchi herself headed for the left side.

“Good evening…” with a bow, I greeted them in hesitation. To be honest, I was quite nervous now that I was meeting them directly. I wasn’t trying to keep talking about the past, but after everything that had happened I couldn’t just stroll in casually with these people staring at me almost without blinking.

“Hello, Kise-kun. It’s been a long time,” with a friendly voice said in his Kansai dialect, Imayoshi-san replied to my greeting; a wide smile plastered all over his face, “Don’t just stand there. Come in, come in.”

Although still having doubts, I did as told and took off my shoes before stepping into the square, rather spacious room. Momo-cchi signaled that I sat next to her, and so I did. It was at that moment I noticed there was one person missing.

“If you’re looking for Sakurai, I sent him with Aomine to assist him,” as if capable of reading my mind, Imayoshi-san mentioned the content of my thought precisely. Considering his personality, however, even if he said that I knew that the guy wasn’t sent just to help out Aomine-cchi, but also to keep an eye of him, especially since I was called out of home without his knowing. “But never mind that. What would you like to eat, Kise-kun, Momoi? We already placed our orders, so now it’s your turn.”

He pushed the menu book lying on the table to our direction. Unlike me who was obviously restless, Momo-cchi accepted it lightly and showed the opened pages to me. The way she guided me to pick the meals and drinks in such a friendly manner made me wondered if she was trying to ease my uneasiness, but whether it was true or not, I was very grateful that I had her with me in this room.

“You look well, Kise-kun,” still with the same smile, Imayoshi-san rested his chin on his hand while looking at me, “I suppose things are steering to a better direction on your side, aren’t they?”

“Yes…” not knowing what else to say to his remark, I could only nod my head. In the meantime, I glanced around a little bit, only to find the other two guys – Wakamatsu-san and Susa-san – were doing nothing but looking silently at me. Under this situation, even if Momo-cchi and Imayoshi-san were being friendly, there was no way I could be calm.

“And I suppose the things with Aomine are also going well. I can see that clearly…”

“Yes?” I frowned upon hearing his last sentence. It didn’t feel like he was just chit-chatting to break the ice, and as though to answer my confusion, Imayoshi-san pointed his index finger towards me.

“Ki-chan, have you been bitten by a bug?” all of a sudden, Momo-cchi pulled back my left collar, slightly exposing the bare skin of my neck. I still didn’t understand what they were talking about until Susa-san, who probably couldn’t stand the dilly-dally anymore, eventually talked for the first time.

“The red mark on your neck,” he said in a flat tone, “That’s what they’re talking about.”

“Ah, you said it now…” with an irritated voice, Wakamatsu-san clicked his tongue and looked aside. It took me a few seconds to finally understand what was going on and right that second, I could feel my face going red and hot as I instinctively covered the said “mark” with my hand. So that was why the two of them had been staring at me so intently.

“I— Umm, I mean— It’s not—“

“Now, now. No need to freak out, Kise-kun,” said Imayoshi-san who didn’t lose his composure even in the slightest bit, “This isn’t something unfamiliar to us, actually. It’s just that it has been awhile since something like this happens due to all the recent incidents. Right, Susa? Wakamatsu?”

“Eh? Did something happen recently? Why didn’t I hear anything?” seemingly interested in the turns of events, Momo-cchi leaned forward towards her two colleagues who couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

“No, well… It’s just that this afternoon we met Aomine in the changing room,” explained Wakamatsu-san while avoiding eye contact with her, “There were red lines on his back, so I asked what they were. I guess I shouldn’t have asked…”

“ _My wife gave this to me this morning. Aren’t I great?_ …That, he said with a smirk,” Susa-san, with a face that suggested he’d seen worse, spelled exactly what Aomine-cchi appeared to have told him.

 _“Stupid, Ahomine-cchi! Stupid! Why did you say that to them?!”_ my own voice screamed inside; my head felt like it was letting out steams to the air. Forget my face turning red. I really wanted to dig a hole and jumped inside right now, never to come out again for the rest of my life.

“Calm down, Kise-kun. There’s no need to be shy, or should I say… It’s too late to feel shy. We’re already far too used to it anyway,” not even trying to fix the situation, Imayoshi-san simply laughed it off, adding up to my embarrassment that my stomach was churning. However, it was not long afterwards that he pushed up his glasses, clearing his throat while fixing his sitting position. With both arms placed on the tables, his fingers entwining together, Imayoshi-san looked straight at me who was sitting right across him. “Well, that was that. I assume you already feel more relaxed by now, don’t you, Kise-kun?”

 _“Surely, you didn’t think we call you out here just to tease you on your love life”_ was probably what he wanted to say. Of course, if he put it that way, I wasn’t as nervous as when I first came into this restaurant. Still, I couldn’t help but feel my stomach churning when I looked back at him, now for an entirely different reason.

“I’ll get straight to business…” he continued without waiting for my answer, “Kise-kun, I would like to propose the termination of your confinement.”

“…I’m sorry?” not capable of registering his words into my system, I found myself staring at Imayoshi-san with a dumbfounded look. But at the same time, nobody around me raised a question – let alone objection – to his remark, even Momo-cchi. Silently, they waited in their respective seat, waiting for their leader to continue with whatever it was he certainly had been planning beforehand.

“It’s just as you heard it just now. I wish to propose an early stop to your home imprisonment and let you return to society,” the man said without the faintest sign of his voice faltering or faking conviction, meaning that he was a hundred percent serious. Seeing my bewildered expression, he did nothing but pulled his lips into a meaningful smile as he asked. “So? What do you say to that, Kise-kun?”

“…Why…all of a sudden?” were the only words I could think off, although I quickly added while stuttering, “I mean, it’s— It’s not that I don’t want to be freed or being ungrateful or anything. I… It’s just… The confinement’s not gonna last much longer, so… I feel like…this is completely out of nowhere.”

“I understand your confusion. Considering that the deal was supposed to last until next month, it is completely normal if you see little point in me cutting it short. But since we wish to request something out of you, it is only right if we give something back to you; in this case: your freedom.”

Just how big of a request were they about to ask that they could easily grant freedom to me? In the first place, they could actually just order me to help them out and I would certainly never refused after all that had happened. I couldn’t help but wonder why they – instead of making use of their privilege – chose to strike a fair deal with me.

_“It concerns Dai-chan…”_

“He seems to get it,” without any words from me, Susa-san all of a sudden made his remark. Indeed, however, even though I didn’t say anything, I was sure it was printed clearly all over my face. After all, why else would they want me involved in this?

“Then it makes things easier for us,” their captain nodded approvingly.

“…What would you…like me to do?” I replied in a small voice after a long pause, resulting in everyone’s gazes burdening even heavier on me, “And how is it related…to Aomine-cchi?”

“I figure it would be boring for you to listen to our explanation from the very start, so we have summarized everything into a very short, but clear description. Wakamatsu, if you will…” said Imayoshi while passing the stage to the blond-haired guy on the right side. He was, according to Aomine-cchi, simply a noisy and fierce man, but I would like to think that despite his brash personality, he understood things better than he looked.

“Well, you know that our team is specialized in dealing with drug smugglers and syndicates, right?” while scratching the back of his head, Wakamatsu-san exhaled out a faint sigh as he gave me an opening question, which I responded to with a nod, letting him to continue, “There is basically just one thing we want to ask from you. That yakuza group you used to be part of, how do they organize their manpower?”

“What?” spontaneously I exclaimed in surprise. If I had been nervous when I first came here and met this guy, right now I had no idea where those feelings had flown to. In its place were, aside of surprise, curiosity and worry. I was curious because they wouldn’t have asked for such a thing with no good reason, and I was worried because even though I had yet to figure out how it was related to Aomine-cchi, certainly they wouldn’t connect in a good way. But even more so, me telling them about it would mean…

“It isn’t that we are unable to handle them the way it is now. But ever since the change in leadership took place, the casualties on our side have grown bigger,” Imayoshi explained, “Through the use of my networks and Momoi’s analytical skill, the numbers have thankfully been reduced, but of course, we would like to have as few casualties as possible. This is where you step in, Kise-kun.”

“I’m sorry, Ki-chan,” Momo-cchi slightly hung her head as she threw me an apologetic look, “I didn’t want to ask you to do this if we can help it.”

A greeting was heard from outside and the door slowly slid open, revealing a waiter with our orders on her tray. After politely apologizing for the intrusion, she put the plates of food in front of us according to our respective orders, including the drinks, before leaving while closing the door once again. They looked really good and smelled delicious these foods, but my appetite had totally gone that I couldn’t even think of taking even just one tiny bite.

“…Well, I… I don’t know if it’s going to assist the police or not, but I do know the size of their group, their armaments and general strategy from the time when I was still there. I even have some names, if they haven’t been changed from their last positions that I know of,” with uncertain voice, I explained to them, “But at the same time, should they find out I’m leaking this information to you, they will have me for sure. This is…different from back then where I ‘only’ revealed the time and location of their activity.”

“If you’re worried about your safety, surely we can arrange something to—“

“P-Please don’t get the wrong idea,” despite my heart saying I should hold myself back, the words simply came out on their own from my lips before Imayoshi-san could finish his words, “Please don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not like I want to protect myself or anything, but for whatever reason, the new leader has set me free unconditionally. I feel like…I shouldn’t push my luck and be thankful for that. Moreover, I… I haven’t…heard from you…why this concerns Aomine-cchi…”

Now that I could no longer pull back what I’d said, I just hoped that I didn’t sound rude to these people who had helped so much that I could live peacefully with Aomine-cchi once again. I noticed them looking at each other for awhile, but instead of Imayoshi-san, the dark brown hair sitting next to him was the one who answered.

“He’s been pursuing these people all by himself, completely rejecting our idea to ask for information from you,” Susa-san said in his low voice, “Although he managed to successfully accomplish his goal so far, at the same time he has also been injured because of it. Minor injuries, but they were there nonetheless.”

In the next second after he said it, the door were slid opened once again, this time without any greetings or manners. It was simply slammed to the side with such force that a loud _thud_ could be heard despite the crowded noises surrounding the atmosphere of the restaurant. And there at the doorstep was no waiter with trays full or food or drinks, but a tall man with tanned skin and dark blue hair. His sapphire-colored eyes were glaring at every single soul sitting inside the room.

“You bastard…” Aomine-cchi hissed furiously, “What did I tell you about never involving Kise in any of our problems? Were my words not clear enough for you to understand?”

“Dai-chan?! How did you—“

“I’m sorry!” right behind Aomine-cchi, another guy with light brown hair showed up before Momo-cchi reached the end of her sentence. With his shoulders shaking, he began to apologize constantly while struggling to explain. “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry! I tried to keep it a secret from Aomine-san as you ordered, but he called home when I was in the restroom and found out Kise-san wasn’t there. I’m sorry!”

“Aww, we’re busted…” his peculiar composure remained in place, Imayoshi-san simply let out a sigh without a hint of remorse even though Aomine-cchi was clearly furious, “So, Kise-kun… It seems that we’re out of time. What do you say to our proposal?”

“Huh? But I—“

“Kise, we’re going home,” cutting through my words, Aomine-cchi stepped onto the _tatami_ without taking off his shoes, grabbing my arm and pulled me out forcefully that I didn’t have a chance to resist. Almost stumbling on my own feet, I put my shoes back on abruptly before being led out of the building.

A familiar car was waiting right outside the restaurant. It wasn’t new, let alone luxurious, but the dashing jet black color reflecting the street lights were enough of a proof to show that the four-wheeled ride had been very well taken care of.

“Get in,” opening the door to the passenger seat, Aomine-cchi’s order rang clearly next to me that I didn’t have the courage to talk back. As soon as I pulled my last leg into the car, he slammed the door closed, walking to the other side and slid into the driver seat, fastening his seat belt without saying a word. I felt like I was prompted to do the same despite his silence, and right after I put on mine with a _click_ , the engine started. Before long, we were already dashing on the road with a roaring start.

The distance between this place and our apartment was in fact not very far. That being said, there shouldn’t be any need for Aomine-cchi to rush back home as if we were being chased down, but ever since the car started moving, I didn’t see him moving his foot away from the gas pedal. Our car blazed through the busy street, and even though he was a cop, Aomine-cchi literally broke almost all traffic regulations with the reckless way he was driving, ignoring the screaming horns from angry drivers around us. His fingers were tightly gripping at the steering wheel; so strong was his grip that it looked like he was about to crush the wheel in his hands.

He was angry. If he was just pissed off, he would’ve complained about it endlessly along the way, but right now he was silent as a clam. I’d never seen Aomine-cchi so furious before, at least not at me, but just the sight of his sharp eyes glaring straight ahead like a mad man was enough to send chills down my spine that I decided to shut up until he spoke by himself. However, the moment I was waiting for never came. We dashed through the main road, turning into the suburban area and soon found ourselves back home.

It already started raining by the time we dropped off from the car. With his large steps stomping on the ground, Aomine-cchi grabbed my wrist and dragged me upstairs. We were about the same height, but I was already having difficulties keeping up with him climbing the stairs. And the moment we reached our apartment, he swiftly unlocked the door, flinging me inside with a single pull of his strong arms and slammed the door close with a _bang_.

“Why were you with them?” he asked me with a piercing glare. We hadn’t even moved away from the entrance when he grabbed both of my shoulders and pushed me back to the side wall, blocking every mean of escape I may had.

“Earlier…today, after you left… Momo-cchi called me and—“

“And why did you come?” without waiting for me to finish talking, he cut in and pressed me further, “You know you’re not supposed to go outside. That four-eyes is the one who imposed the confinement on you after our last discussion. It’s not as if you didn’t know him. If someone then told you to go out on that guy’s order when you’re actually not supposed to, even a kid knows he’s got something up his sleeve.”

“Because…” I stammered with my words. It was scary to have the usually gentle Aomine-cchi now speaking to me with such a fierce look on his face. The hands grabbing my shoulders began to tighten as he questioned me. “…Because they said it concerns Aomine-cchi.”

“So what? Just because it concerns me doesn’t mean you can just stroll casually to meet them like that. You heard what he wants from you. If I hadn’t come and got you, he would’ve made you told him the information he wanted and risked yourself being hunted down by those thugs for the rest of your life. Isn’t that why you chose to be confined at home rather than becoming their informant in the first place?”

As he said this, I noticed a bandage covering the base of his neck, near the collarbones. It was so well hidden under the collar of his shirt that I didn’t see it immediately even from this distance, but now that it was visible, I could see a spot of dark red color slightly sipping through the white cloth.

“.........No,” I muttered under my breath. Despite his anger, Aomine-cchi realized the change in my voice and face that he stared at me in a mix of confusion and irritation, but I ignored all that. “That’s not it.”

“What nonsense are you spouting about now?” he asked impatiently.

“That’s not it. I didn’t choose to be confined at home because I was scared of the clan chasing after me,” I lifted my face, meeting those pair of dark blue spheres reflecting my figure in their deep color. With his anger now seemed to be subsiding, the expression on Aomine-cchi’s face was now dominated by perplexity with a dash of curiosity in anticipation of what I was about to say. “I made that decision…solely because I want to make up for my mistakes to you…by staying close to your side.”

It might be weird, or bluffing even, if I said being hunted by them no longer scared me when I was weighing down the options given to me. At that time, the only thing influencing my decision was which choice would allow me more chances to make Aomine-cchi happy. I had hurt him in the most painful way possible. I had told him that I loved him, but even knowing very well how he felt for me, I still left him. He had chased me down through a hell of struggles, but at the very end I selfishly chose to leave him still by insisting to be arrested by using moral conscience as an excuse. I thought only about myself; I was so self-centered that I didn’t think of how he felt back then and why he refused to have me handed over to the authorities.

Still… He always forgave me, despite all the things I’d done to him.

“Had I chosen to provide information to Imayoshi-san and your team, perhaps I would’ve been able to redeem the sins I’d done in the past a little bit,” I told him again, “But then, I would put myself at risk of being targeted by the clan for pushing my luck. It isn’t their punishment that I’m scared off. If they take me away, it means I will once again leave your side and that is the only thing I can’t let myself do. Nevertheless, now you get hurt for dealing with them alone because you don’t want to have me involved in this. Just…what am I supposed to do now?”

I felt so bitter. I agreed to return to the clan and shoot him back then to prevent those people from killing him, but by doing so I ended up betraying him so horribly. I came back and helped him out to make up for my betrayal, and I decided to hand myself over afterwards to atone for my past crimes, but by doing so I would end up leaving again when he’d chased me with all his might to bring me back. I chose to be imposed by home imprisonment in order to finally dedicate my whole time to be with him, but by doing so I let him fought the clan all by himself and he was wounded because of it. Why was it that everything I did for his sake always turned out to be hurting him instead? Was I so unworthy to be by his side that all I could do was throwing him into problems one after another?

“I just want to make you happy… That’s all…”

The hands that were taking hold of my shoulders suddenly loosened. Before I could register what made him do it, I felt his arms circling around me and soon, I found myself being held close to his chest while he kissed the strands of my hair.

“You’re thinking too much, you idiot,” he scolded me in a low voice. Despite the harsh words, however, I could feel gentleness returning to his act and gestures. “I’m not so weak that I need an information leak in order to take down a syndicate. I’m not called an ‘ace’ for nothing. Have you been underestimating my abilities all this time?”

“That’s not what I mean…” I replied, feeling his warmth seeping into my skin due to our close distance, “It’s just I don’t want to see you keep getting injured.”

“I told you getting injured is part of the risks that come with this job, and I take on this job with my eyes and brain clear awake,” he said, “You’ve been working yourself up over nothing, stupid.”

My lips were sewn tight. Aomine-cchi sounded reassuring, but even then I still couldn’t find calm. If possible, I want to keep clutching at his back like this, hugging him tight all day long without having to worry over whether he was getting hurt or not out there.

But it was simply impossible. Before long, he released me from his embrace, and while keeping a small distance between us he peered into my face as he spoke the words I didn’t want to hear.

“Well, I must go now,” he said with a faint sigh, “I’m just using my break time to drive you back here, so I have to get back to work now. There is a case to be solved.”

“…Yes…” I replied in a whisper. In spite of my words, I hung my head down; my fingers still clutching at the clothes on his back. He noticed this, of course, because he brushed the side of my face and told me in a comforting tone.

“I’ll be back,” his thumb caressing my cheek as he slowly lowered himself. And our lips met. I closed my eyes to savor this fleeting moment, because not long afterwards we separated, and he let go of me, walking back towards the door.

But still in the last second, I tugged at the tip of his coat.

“Kise?” he asked me in bewilderment.

“I…will wait…” I mumbled under my breath, unable to bring myself to look up and face him in the eyes, “I’ll be waiting…”

“Don’t worry,” as if capable of sensing my anxiety, he touched my fingers and removed it gently from him, “I won’t do anything reckless, as long as I know you’ll be here to welcome me home.”

And he released my hand; the door soon shut closed, erasing his figure from my sight. Before my brain could process anything, in the next second I found my body running on its own to the balcony of the living room. The rain had begun to fall harder by now, and as I looked down I saw his car leaving the premise with the faint growling sound of the engine. I couldn’t bring myself to make any sound, let alone calling out to him despite the futility.

Only my own voice ringing clearly in the back of my mind.

_In this life, there was never any good._

_I was made to believe that when I was young, and for a very long time I had been holding onto that very belief without even considering if there was other possibilities I could choose._

_I thought I was born and raised in a fairly happy family, but soon it was stripped away from me. The days that followed were hell. Being treated like a slave in a house full of ruthless men was already more than tormenting, but then I was made to commit things horrible enough to make me questioned my humanity for doing them albeit it was forced on me._

_That’s why… When I first met Aomine-cchi, I was frightened. Why would this person save a stranger like me? Why would this person be nice to me? If he knew there would be no advantage in helping me, what would he do then? I had been living so much in the shadows that his kindness seemed so bright, and it became even more blinding when I realized he had no ulterior motive in doing so; that he was honestly and earnestly saving someone like me without hoping for anything in return._

_In this life, perhaps there were actually some good things._

_I was made to know that when I began to live with him, and ever since that time I began to learn that good things really did can happen._

_I thought I could finally find happiness, but even that was soon stripped away from me. The days that followed were even more hellish than before. Having to return to that world after just discovering the brighter side of life was already miserable enough, but I was made to betray the person I loved the most in the entire world that it made me question the purpose of why I was ever born in the first place if what I would end up doing was hurting everybody around me._

_And now that we were finally together once more, would he be taken away from me again?_

* * *

Rumbles of thunders stormed the sky tonight. Like a tireless torrent of gunshots, countless raindrops never stopped hitting the windows as though trying to break it apart. And it was pitch black outside, without even a glimpse of light visible as far as I could see.

The temperature inside the apartment was low. I didn’t turn the fan or air-conditioner on, but I had to curl up in a blanket as I sat on the sofa to keep myself warm. The time shown by the clock on the wall was 1:45 AM, which meant this downpour had been going on for almost five hours straight. And yet it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

With all the noises outside, I wasn’t supposed to be able to hear the sound of the clock ticking, let alone my heart beating, but in fact I could. My fingertips and toes felt cold, and no matter how hard I was clutching at the blanket I was wrapped in, I couldn’t feel at ease. How many times had I been checking at my phone since hours ago? But whenever I turned it on, all I could see was the screen’s empty display without any notification whatsoever.

There was no reply to my message, no call at all.

“Dammit…” in a whisper, I cursed under my breath. Not receiving any replies at all already made me anxious enough, and to make things worse, in my head I kept hearing his voice promising that he would return.

“…Aomine-cchi…” in a small voice, I called out to his name in hope that it would reach him, “Aomine-cchi, where are you…?”

A blast of thunder pierced through the night sky once again. Burying my face on my knees, I clutched harder at the white blanket while covering myself entirely underneath. It felt cold… The tips of my fingers were trembling as I could do nothing but holding onto the silent phone in my hands.

Three hours ago I sent a message to Aomine-cchi. I didn’t intend to disturb him while he was working, so I just asked him to let me know if he was already on his way home. But there was no reply at all. In the first place, I had no idea where he went or what he was doing. He just said there was a case he needed to solve, but whether he was tracking someone down, investigating clues or participating in another raid, I didn’t know.

_Why do I keep thinking of all these bad thoughts?_

I had found out since a long time ago what he did for a living. This wasn’t the first time either that he had to come late from work. There were even times when he didn’t return for three days straight. But back then he kept me informed of where he was and what he was doing. Sometimes he would even call for a short while just so we could hear each other’s voice. But even more than that, back then I was so blissfully oblivious of everything else around me, even to the point of forgetting who I was. Until they found me and awakened me to reality, the thought of dangers the clan might pose never crossed my mind. No matter how awfully cheesy it sounded, in my world there was nothing else but him.

Perhaps… This was why I felt so restless right now. Aside of not hearing any news from him, I had now realized the threats he would be facing in his line of work and how it would endanger his very well-being. What if he was shot? What if he was stabbed? What if he got caught and they did terrible things to him? What if… What if he never returned again?

“Aomine-cchi… Aomine-cchi, please come home soon. Please…”

A sudden ring in the palm of my hand surprised me enough to make me almost dropped my phone to the floor. There was a call coming in, but it wasn’t Aomine-cchi. In fact, it was a number I didn’t know. Who, on their right mind, would call someone at this hour?

“H-Hello?” with uncertain voice, I picked up my phone and answered.

 _“Good evening, Kise-kun. Or perhaps I should say… Good morning,”_ said a familiar voice from the other hand. Even without looking at him directly, I could already imagine that person’s ever so composed, but serious face. And when he was talking in such serious tone, it could never be good news.

“Imayoshi…san?” obvious as it was, I couldn’t help but muttering his name in questioning manner, “Why are you…? What happens to Aomine-cchi? I haven’t heard from him at all.”

 _“About that… I would like you to remain calm as I convey this message,”_ he replied without changing the way he talked, _“Our team has just successfully apprehended a drug syndicate strongly linked to the case we informed you this evening. However, it is my deepest regret to inform you that some of our squad members were injured during the fight that broke out in the process.”_

I felt cold all of a sudden; the tips of my fingers and toes became numb. With what little guts I still had in me, I gulped hard and forced myself to open my lips and talked.

“Is…Aomine-cchi…alright?” almost choking on my own breath, I managed to ask the most important question.

 _“As for Aomine…”_ following a brief pause, I could hear him exhaling a faint sigh, _“It is most unfortunate that I have to tell you he was also injured and had been admitted to the nearest hospital together with his wounded colleagues.”_

A clattering noise resounded in the living room, now frozen in silence. I couldn’t hear anymore of Imayoshi-san’s voice from the phone that I just dropped on the floor. Did my heart cease from beating for a second, I wonder? I was unable to speak a word, not lifting a finger. It felt as though the time around me had just stopped and I thought I had lost sense of everything until I heard heavy footsteps coming from the entrance hall.

“Kise, I’m home!” yelled a familiar voice without a care at how late it already was, “You still awake?”

Before I knew it, I had sprang from my seat and sprinted with all my might. There, standing on the doormat, was the tall figure with tanned-colored skin that I had been dying to see. Wearing no trench coat and bringing no umbrella, he was soaked from head to toe with water dripping down his hair and clothes like a small rain inside the house, making a puddle on the floor.

“Oh, there you are. You haven’t turned off the lights— Woah, hey!” he let out a yelp in surprise when I jumped at him, circling my arms around his neck and holding him tight that he nearly fell over from the sudden force, “Stupid! You’re gonna get yourself wet, too.”

“You’re back…” I said to him, choking on my own voice, “You’re back…”

“Calm down now. What the hell is wrong with you? I’m home already,” while patting my back, he scolded me in a gentle voice, “Come on, Kise, let me go. You’re seriously going to get yourself wet.”

Instead of listening to him, I closed the distance between us and pressed my lips to his. “ _Welcome home. Let me get you a towel. Hurry up and change before you catch a cold”,_ those were the things I was supposed to tell him, but I wasn’t able to. I didn’t even know whether I was crying or not; I was unable to hear my own self if I made any sobs or sniffles. I only wanted to feel his entire being right now, feeling that he was really here and alive in front of me.

“…What the hell are you doing, really?” he said after I pulled back from him; his eyes looked rather feverish despite the confusion clearly drawn all over his face, “If you carry on with this nonsense, I might attack you right here and now, just so you know.”

“I don’t care,” I replied quickly, burying my face on his shoulder.

“Stupid… It’s not the time to fool around,” he let out a long sigh at my careless remark, “Go to bed now, Kise. You should really get some sleep. Look, your eyes are red but you’re totally white as paper. And you’re shaking, too.”

“I don’t care,” once again, I repeated the same words. For some reason, I could tell that Aomine-cchi was rather taken aback as if he wasn’t expecting me to be so stubborn. To be honest, I didn’t know why I was saying such things, but at this moment, I was already far from capable of thinking. It was an absurd thought, but I felt like I mustn’t let him go now. I didn’t care if it made me sound as though I was asking for it.

“Fine. You ask for it,” repeating what I just had in mind, this time it was Aomine-cchi who shoved his lips to mine as he took my wrist. I tensed up and quivered when his other hand, cold and wet from the rain, slipped into my clothes and travelled along my back. With my mouth being ravaged like this, it didn’t take long for my legs to give way and soon my body slipped down, falling to the cold floor. Had Aomine-cchi not held me close with one arm, I probably would’ve hit the ground pretty hard.

I gazed up at his figure hovering on top of me. Even though my sight was rather blurry with the tears I’d apparently cried, I could still see his dashing face with those pair of sapphire-colored spheres peering into mine. The drops of rainwater trickling from the ends of his dark blue strands made his appearance even more attractive that I found myself starting to blush, even if I had seen his face up close a lot of times already.

“I’d warned you. You’re gonna get wet, too,” muttered Aomine-cchi as he saw the water had seeped into the front of my clothes, as well. It did feel cold, now that he mentioned it, but he gave me no chance to think when he shoved his hand into my shirt, pushing it up until the front part of my torso was completely exposed.

“Nngh!” again, I couldn’t help but tremble when the cold drops of water fell from his hair to my bare skin. He seemed aware of it, but chose to ignore as his hand and tongue glided over my chest. At this moment, I was already at the brink of having my breath taken away by his touches and yet I noticed his gentle kisses were getting lower and lower, down to my stomach until I finally understood what he was about to do when he slowly pulled my pants down.

“Why are you so sensitive today?” he asked while keeping his hands working on getting my briefs out of the way. Hearing that question alone was already more than enough to send a flush of red devouring my face, but when I gazed down, I felt like I was about to die of embarrassment to see the state of that particular part totally visible in front of him.

“Aomine-cchi, are you really going to…?”

I couldn’t finish my sentence. He slightly glanced up at me as though stuying my reaction. When I saw the look in his eyes, I thought my heart just jumped a bit, but before I could do anything else he proceeded to take it into his mouth, sending such an overwhelming feeling all over my body that I involuntarily let out a cry. There was a suckle, a lick and a lap, and then he sucked on it while repeating the same pattern on different parts. My toes were curling; I had to cover my mouth with both hands to prevent such shameful voice from coming out again, but with him knowing exactly where to hit, I didn’t know how long I could keep this up.

_I can’t stand it anymore…_

Perhaps it was as he just said. For some reason, even I was aware that my body was more sensitive than usual today. With muffled cries, I attempted to push him away but to no avail. I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks again, but now for an entirely different reason. My hips already felt numb, and when he suckled hard on it, I threw my head backwards; my back arching as I reached climax. What followed after that, however, was extreme exhaustion that I thought I was about to faint.

“…Kise, are you tired?” wiping the traces of white from his lips, Aomine-cchi hovered above me once again; his face approaching mine. To be honest, when I felt his fingers brushing the tears away from my cheek, it felt so comfortable that I could actually fall asleep just like this. But something in me kept my consciousness intact as I brought myself up, surrounding my arms around his back.

“I’m okay…” I told him with a hoarse voice between my gasps, “I’m okay, so… Don’t stop…”

“Tch, aah, man… You’re really asking for it,” clicking his tongue in frustration, Aomine-cchi pushed me on the floor and stared at me with agitated eyes. Maybe he, too, was already on the brink of losing it. “Don’t blame me if you’re feeling sore all over tomorrow.”

He said that and took off his clothes. However, as soon as I saw what had been hidden beneath his shirt, both of my eyes went wide.

“Y-You’re hurt!” I rose from my position abruptly. Earlier this morning, there were “only” several small cuts and bruises, but now his lower torso was wrapped in white bandages. And his upper right arm, and his lower left arm, including the one on the base of his neck that I saw this evening. Seeping through the white cloth, in all of those wounds, was the same dark color of red.

“It’s already being tended to, no problem,” replied him in a casual tone, “Though it’s gonna get kinda nasty if I wanna take a shower…”

“I… I should’ve told you…the information I know…”

“Stop it right there,” halting my stuttering words, he put his hands on the sides of my face, making me looked straight into his eyes, “There’s no need to blame yourself. No need at all. Forget you used to be part of them. Forget you used to do bad things because of them. You are now an ordinary guy who knows nothing more of the underworld than most people. You hear it? An ordinary guy.”

“But, I…”

“No ‘buts’,” once again, he stopped my words, “Kise, you have been freed from that world. Don’t look back. Don’t turn your back no matter what. Look only at me.”

The hands holding my face were firm and unshaken. His eyes were resolute, and I of all people should know that when he said it like this, he really meant it. I wanted to believe in him; I wanted to live as an ordinary guy as he said and I really did try. But when I saw those wounds on him, I felt like I was being pulled back again to where I started.

“…You’re hurt…” repeating the same words, I hung my head down. I felt really miserable…because all I could do was to watch him getting wounded over and over again while I remained safe in his protection.

“I told you, this is nothing,” Aomine-cchi replied while ruffling my hair, “Just some cuts and bruises are normal. They’d heal if you give them some times. But… Well, I suppose for now I’ll just have to make you stop seeing them.”

With that said, he pushed me down again to the floor, but this time I was lying flat on my stomach. Unable to look back, I could only feel his cold fingers running down my back to my hips. Stuck in a mix between confusion and panic, I attempted to rise but he prevented me from doing so, rubbing two of his fingers on that part that I could feel my face turning red.

“I told you, don’t look back,” he said in a low voice, but for some reason there was also a little bit of teasing in the way he said it, and in the next second he pushed one finger in that my body jumped in surprise.

“St— What are you—?”

“What am I doing? I have to loosen you up first, don’t I? But we just did it recently, so it looks like I don’t need to do much. Here, it’s already like this…” he pushed in one more fingers. I bit my lips when I felt movements inside. Even though I just came, his stimulation was enough to rile me up once again that I was almost scratching on the floor.

“Say, Kise…” he lowered himself and held me from behind, whispering into my ears, “It’s okay now, isn’t it?”

I glanced at him and caught the sight of feverish look on his face. He didn’t need to spell it for me; I knew that he was also at his limit by now. Shutting my eyes closed, I gave him a nod and he then kissed the strands of my hair.

“Kise, I love you…”

I thought my heart just stopped. It startled me enough that I let loose my entire defense. Aomine-cchi rarely said that first, even as a joke, even as we were doing these kinds of things. But it was exactly because of that I was completely taken off guard when he entered me in the next moment.

“…s… It hurts…” I curled and clenched my fists to the floor albeit his slow and careful movements.

“Sorry… I guess it wasn’t enough, huh?” holding back his own breaths, Aomine-cchi’s arm pulled me close so my back was pressing against his chest. He remained idle for awhile, waiting for me to get used to him before he started with a slow movement again.

“Ah! Nnn… Nngh, Aomine-cchi…”

“Kise…” he called my name in a whisper, nibbling at my ear with his hand lifting my chin. He touched my slightly parted lips, brushing them gently and slipped two of his fingers inside. Being careful as not to get bitten in my current state, he pushed them towards my tongue in a careful gesture as if trying to tell me to suck on them.

“Mmm! Mmm!” I arched my back as he pushed deep into me. Kissing the side of my neck and shoulders, he asked if I was feeling alright, but it was too much for me that I couldn’t give him any answer. He considered my silence as a sign that I wasn’t okay, apparently, and in the next second I felt him gliding down my stomach with his free hand, touching my front and beginning to stroke on it slowly. “Nnnngh! Nnngh! Sto— Aomine-cchi, don’t—!“

“No? But I thought you were in pain,” he asked without stopping his hand. Instead, he rubbed faster and stronger that a wave of pleasure suddenly came crashing on me. My eyes went wide. It was enough of a sudden attack that I nearly bit his fingers off had he not pulled them out before pressing at the tip, driving me insane for the second time.

_“He’s been pursuing these people all by himself, completely rejecting our idea to ask for information from you.”_

A piece of recollection from this evening’s conversation flashed up in my mind. Why…would I be remembering that kind of thing when we were together like this? I already was at the brink of losing my mind, but now anxiety and worries attacked me once again as those pieces of uneasiness started to return into my heart.

_“Although he managed to successfully accomplish his goal so far, at the same time he has also been injured because of it.”_

_“Minor injuries, but they were there nonetheless.”_

  _“It is most unfortunate that I have to tell you he was also injured and had been admitted to the nearest hospital together with his wounded colleagues.”_

“…se… Oi, Kise!” with a rather loud voice, Aomine-cchi shook me awake rather forcefully. In my surprise, I could only catch a glimpse of his face contorting in a combination between concern and confusion as he stroked my hair and leaned closer. “What’s wrong? What were you thinking just now?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but at the same moment, for an unknown reason I choked back on my own voice and instead of responding to his question, I turned away and buried my face on my arms on the floor. I didn’t know why I started crying again. With this fit of sobs, I was far from capable of speaking even a word that I felt Aomine-cchi touching my shoulder and asked.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he repeated his question, “Kise? Are you alright, Kise?”

“…m...red…” my tongue felt numb as I talked, “I’m scared…”

“Scared? Scared of what?”

Unable to spell my worries into words, I could only clench my fists and curled. Perhaps, when he saw me like this, Aomine-cchi seemed to understand what I was trying to say. I thought he would finally be pissed as I kept repeating the same thing over and over again, even though he had told me everything would be okay. I thought he would finally tell me to stop being a baby, that he’d had enough of my stubbornness. However, contrary to my expectation, what he did was to touch my chin, signaling that I looked back at him, and when I did I was met with those gentle pair of dark blue color gazing into mine.

“Stupid… You’re thinking too much,” he scolded me in his low voice, “Kise, do you love me?”

“…?! O-Of course I do—“

“Do you believe in me?” he asked again. For a few moments, I stared at him in confusion, but eventually I nodded my head and he smiled while letting out a small laugh, “Then… Do you believe me when I told you I won’t do anything reckless, as long as I know you’ll be here to welcome me home?”

I could feel the lids of my eyes opened wide as he whispered those words into my ears. He did come back, didn’t he? Despite the injuries, he came back walking in one piece and now he was holding me like this. Had he not been true to his words, he would’ve probably rushed himself into danger and I might not see him again in the same way ever.

“I haven’t heard your answer,” brushing the locks of hair covering my ear, Aomine-cchi pressed his forehead to my temple. I could feel his hand grazing against mine; our fingers then entwining together as he slowly turned me over so we would be facing each other. When I saw his face, silently waiting in anticipation, a mountain of feelings I’d been keeping deep down in my heart all of a sudden felt like they would burst out altogether, but the only thing I managed to let out from my lips were only two simple words.

“…I do…” I muttered that answer to him, “I do… I believe in you…Aomine-cchi…”

He said nothing in response, but I could see a subtle smile pulling the corners of his lips as he leaned in and kissed my forehead. It was strange, indeed… When I repeated his words in the back of my mind, the uneasiness torturing me began to subside little by little. Maybe I really had been thinking too much. If only I had put more trust in him… He did come back to me, didn’t he?

“I’m sorry…” in a small voice, I whispered those words to him as I leaned in against his arm, “Aomine-cchi, I love you.”

“Seriously, Kise… I really should keep you away from Ryou. You’ve totally caught his apologetic germ.”

We both chuckled at his remark. As he swiped away the bangs covering my forehead, I thought I could catch the sight of his rare, loving smile directed at me and returned mine to him just the same. It was just…immediately afterwards, a wave of relief streamed into my system accompanied by drowsiness. I had wanted to stay awake to gaze into his gentle smile as long as possible, but before I knew it, his voice calling me grew far into the distance and my lids fell closed as I finally lost sense of everything around me.

* * *

A glimmer of sunray pierced through the slightly opened curtains, shooting right towards me that I had no choice but to open my eyelids. After blinking several times to adjust myself to the light, it finally came to me that I was still lying on the bed, wrapped in the comfortable blanket up to half of my face. Reflexively, I reached out to my cell phone hidden under the pillow, only to find out that the device was not placed where it was supposed to be.

_Huh? Weird… Where is it?_

“You looking for this?”

I nearly jumped at the sudden remark coming from the door that what was left of my sleepiness flew out of the window at once. Walking towards the bed where I was lying was Aomine-cchi, already fresh and dressed in his casual homely clothes. In his hand was a familiar square object I’d been searching for.

“Aomine-cchi… Good morning,” I greeted him in spite of the bewilderment of his sudden entrance, “Where did you find that?”

“I’d say ‘Good afternoon’ sounds better,” replied him with a smirk, throwing himself to the bedside while passing the phone to me, “It was on the floor near the sofa.”

“Ah…” I remembered now. The last time I held onto this was indeed when I was covering myself with the blanket in the living room. As it now returned to my hand, the first thing I did was reflexively turning it on and I was then dumfounded to find out it was already well past noon.

“You slept like a log,” Aomine-cchi said with the faint sign of his usual smirk starting to spread on his face, “I shook your shoulders and even threatened to attack you, but you only mumbled some nonsense and went back to sleep.”

“S-Sorry…” I felt my face turning red at his remark.

“Actually, I took the liberty of looking at your phone when I found it back there,” replied him with his voice changing into a more serious tone, “I noticed that the last phone call you had was with that accursed four-eyes at two in the morning, right before I came back. What was that about?”

“That, he… He told me…that your team has successfully apprehended a drug syndicate,” I said, recalling the brief conversation I had with the captain of his team. Aomine-cchi stared at me intently as though telling me to elaborate further, and when he was being like this, I knew that I might as well just did it. “He informed me…that some of the squad members were injured. Then I asked him about you.”

“And what did he say?”

“......He said you were also injured and had been admitted to the hospital.”

“That damn four-eyes… So that explains why you were acting like that last night,” Aomine-cchi clicked his tongue in irritation. If Imayoshi-san was here, I swore he could’ve really smacked the guy in the face.

“But he wasn’t lying, though,” I told him, “You were really injured, weren’t you?”

“A shallow cut or two won’t kill me, idiot. Look, I told you they’re going to heal soon,” as he said this, Aomine-cchi showed the injuries on his arms. The bandages were already replaced with a new one, and it was done neatly. There were significantly less blood on them compared to last night, and when I asked to see the one on his stomach, it appeared to have looked better, too. “I was injured, yes, but it’s nothing to fuss over. I knew he had something up his sleeve when he made that suspicious smile when dropping me at the gate last night.”

“Imayoshi-san dropped you off?”

“Ah, sorry. I wanted to tell you this when I came back, actually,” with a rather awkward expression, Aomine-cchi scratched the back of his head, “My phone was smashed to pieces when I fought with those thugs from last night. The front and side of my car were also damaged so bad they had to be sent to the repair shop.”

“So that’s why you didn’t reply to my message…”

“Did you send me one? Must be after my phone was destroyed, sorry,” replied him. Afterwards, he let out a long sigh while stretching his arms and legs, sprawling on the bed next to me while leaning in towards me. “Well, guess it’s time to get a new one. What do you say if we look up the web together later on, Kise?”

“Eh? Don’t you have to go to work?” I stared at him in confusion. Now that I thought about it, it was weird that he was wearing such casual clothes instead of the usual shirt and trousers and tie.

“Nope. The guys we caught last night were quite the big fish. Now that they’re already in our hands, we can relax for a little while, so the four-eyes said I could take today’s off since there’s only some reporting and desk works to do anyway.”

“I see…” I mumbled under my breaths, quite amazed that Aomine-cchi didn’t feel insulted when he’d practically been told he was useless for desk works right to his face. But then, all of a sudden I noticed his arms circling around my waits as he pulled me closer with a suspicious grin. “W-What?”

“I’m free for the entire day, see?” he said in a similarly suspicious tone, “I wonder what I will do with you…”

“…?! But we’d just done it last night—“

“When did I ever say anything about doing that?” replied him, pretending to play innocent.

“But you’re still going to do it, right?”

“Well, that’s true,” without even a tiny bit of shame, Aomine-cchi shifted closer until he was literally lying on top of me, making a mess of the sheet and blanket. I knew he could see my face turning red by now, but still he closed in until our noses nearly bumped together. “I told you, didn’t I? Once I have a day off, I’m gonna spoil you rotten until you lose your mind…”

There was nothing I could say to that, and with his arms locking tight around my waist, there was nowhere for me to run. It seemed that I was left with no choice. As I shut my eyes tight when I felt his presence drawing near, a thought flashed by in the back of my mind.

_Today’s gonna be a really long day…_


End file.
